These two lovely crochet mandalas are each worked in what looks to be a combination of variegated yarn and solids in orange and white. I love the combination. It looks like citrus and sunflowers to me. And it looks like it would bring beautiful sunny inspiration as a kitchen display; but that might be because these are the colors that I’ve decorated my own kitchen in!
These mandalas are contributed by Abby Call who blogs at Knitting Ramblings. And in fact when I popped over there and found her post about Mandalas for Marinke I learned that she was indeed inspired by the sun when making these. She writes,
“I chose these colors because they remind me of the sun. I always feel better on a sunny day even if it is the middle of winter and the temps are in the single digits. Sunshine just makes you feel good.”
In her letter to me, Abby wrote:
“I am sorry I never knew about Marinke’s blog or works until she was gone. I am more of a knitter than a crocheter. I have since found her blog to be very inspiring and have several projects in my mind using her mandala patterns.
Personally I have no dealing with depression. The closest I have come is a couple years ago we lost a local weatherman who I spent fourteen years with daily getting ready for work. His departure touched the entire city as only a few knew of his own fight with depression. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to deal with the demons in your own mind. My prayers and thoughts are with Marinke’s family as they deal with their loss. I feel the craft world has felt a loss as well.
I chose to contribute because I feel this is a very worthwhile cause. Any time you can bring people together to show some light on something so tragic is so worth participating in. Thank you for doing this. There are so many people out there that are dealing with depression that no one knows about. Maybe we can help encourage them to come forward to get any help that is available.”
Abby can be found on Ravelry as NaomiKnitster. I love what she shares about this name:
“My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 4 because she thought I might need the skill someday. She worked for Cole of California and came home at night and knitted to relax. If my grandmother could see the yarns (today) she would die. Her name is Naomi and I used her name as my Ravelry name.”
For the depression awareness portion of today’s post, I wanted to share a collaborative photography project by Dior Vargas sharing photos of people of color who live with mental health issues. I’ve previously shared several other photography projects related to depression; this one is unique because it specifically encourages people of color to speak up and share their stories and help break the stigma in this area.
Dior Vargas is a Latina Feminist Mental Health Activist and she writes of this project:
“This photo project stems from the lack of media representation of POC (people of color) and mental illness. There are tons of articles that list people with depression and other mental illnesses but you rarely see someone who looks like you. We need to change the way this is represented. This is not something to be ashamed about. We need to confront and end the stigma. This is a NOT a white person’s disease. This is a reality for so many people in our community.”
Looking at this project also made me want to share a list I’ve seen in several of my grad school classes over the years. I’ve seen several forms of it but it’s essentially a checklist of white privilege, and I think it’s important for people living with privilege to take a look at it just to become more aware. Here’s a shorter version. There are variations on this as well – with additional questions that emphasize the lack of privilege that women, gender/sexual minorities and others may experience in different situations.
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