Galaxy Girl and Poppy Power Embroidery from cozyblue

I visited my family in Kentucky recently, and I brought an embroidery kit for my niece courtesy of cozyblue. Liz (cozyblue's founder/owner) and I had a plan that I would bring my in-progress embroidery and see if my niece was curious, then I could bring out the kit for her and show her how to do it.

It worked! You know what else it did? It made me remember how relaxing embroidery can be. I often get caught up in knitting projects because I have such a long queue, but I have a lot of embroidery patterns I want to make too. So I finished up the one I was working on, and then I completed another one.

Pattern: Galaxy Girl by cozyblue

Back Yard Yarn Bomb: Crochet Mandala

I have a new respect for yarn bombers. These are not easy to hang!

I crochet this mandala/doily in just one Sunday using bulky yarn from my stash. (I almost emptied out an entire drawer of yarn! Woo!) It takes a LOT of yarn to make yarn bombs.

Pattern: Bits of Mandy's Mandala pattern, plus my own additions to the last several rounds to make it larger

Yarn: Lion Brand Hometown USA, Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick, Bernat Mega Bulky

I used about 5 full and 2 partial skeins of yarn. 

Alex helped me hang the crochet mandala on the chain-link fence in our back yard, and it was a lot harder to hang than I thought. If you ever decide to try yarn bombing, these are some of the things I learned: