Kelly's Sunny Crochet Contribution to Mandalas for Marinke

Here is the next of the beautiful, inspiring, special contributions coming in to the #MandalasForMarinke remembrance project. I am grateful for each and every amazing contribution. You are invited to join; learn more here.

Beautiful Crochet Mandala

This luminous crochet mandala is worked in yellow, orange, white and red to resemble the beauty and brightness of the sun. I love the inspiration, the design and the color combination. Brilliant and beautiful!

Meet the Maker

This sunny crochet mandala comes to us from Kelly (@knitpromaniac on Twitter and Instagram), a creative spirit who loves crafts of all kinds. She shared:

“I am sad to say that I was only introduced to Wink and her beautiful creations after her death. Her story really hit home for me, so when I found out about this project, I felt I needed to contribute – not only for her but also for myself. I have death with depression and anxiety for most of my life. I truly credit knitting, crochet, and yoga as a few of my top lifesavers. It’s only been three years since I discovered these hobbies, but I can honestly say they’ve helped me more than anything else.

When I heard about Wink, I was having a pretty rough time, finding myself back in the dark. I was beginning to get desperate to find a way to pull myself out again. I made my contribution to resemble the sun, because not only do I need the light in my life, but I hope that Wink has found that light wherever she may be now.

My mandala isn’t perfect and that’s what I love about it. We spent too much time fretting over the details and not enough enjoying the big picture. We are not perfect; we never will be. Life, however, is a gift, and I am heartbroken to know that one of our own suffered so much. I hope that she is surrounded by light and the beautiful colors her patterns display, and I hope her friends and family find comfort in this project. I know I have!”

Thank you Kelly, not just for your kind words, but for sharing your story and inspiration with us. I love the sun-shaped mandala and the reminder to try to find the big, beautiful picture.

Words by Wink

Wink often took pictures of nature (sometimes using her vintage cameras) so today I thought I’d share a few that mention the sun:

• “The weather was beautiful, so we were very lucky because all week the weather was basically touch and go; showers here, sporadic sunshine there, mostly overcast days… But not Sunday! 🙂 They call it Sun-day for a reason you know.”
• “It was a gorgeous day when we reached Farnham; I like to think I brought the sun with me from The Netherlands.”
• “It was the end of the afternoon on a very cold, cold day, and me and D had visited the deer near our house when I spotted this gorgeous sky. The sun was about to go down which caused the pinkish hue at the bottom of the photo… It was a magical moment.”
• “It was real fun sitting in the sun for a while! We talked and ate and crocheted; it was very nice being outside for the day.”
• “I’m not sure how much you know about us Dutchies, but we LOVE to talk about the weather. Honestly. I can go outside right now and stand in the middle of the supermarket, and all I would hear is conversations about the weather! I’m not sure what it is about the weather that we find so incredibly interesting to talk about. Maybe it has something to do with our nature to complain about almost everything – complaining about the weather is something you can do on a daily basis here in The Netherlands! This week we’ve had warm sun, light drizzles, never-ending showers, some extreme hail, and the plain ‘ol rain. And it could be completely different next week; who knows, we might even have snow one day, followed by tropic temperatures the next day!”

But really, she was more of a cool weather person:

“I love that Autumn is here. I love this season so much; the gorgeous saturated colours all around us, the smells, the cooler weather (I’m not much of a sun/warmth person!), and even though I kind of miss the long days and I’m sad to see that it’s getting dark earlier every day, I’m happy to spend the evenings inside cuddled up under a blanket.”

About Depression

One purpose of this project is to raise awareness about depression so each post will end with some facts, thoughts or quotes about depression, suicide and/or mental health. Since I already shared about Reverse Seasonal Depression (when the sunny months correlate with depressive periods), so today I just thought I’d share a quote I like from Laura Ingalls Wilder:

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”

All contributions to Mandalas for Marinke are welcome and will help raise awareness about depression while honoring her work in the same way that this great contribution has done today. Details to join here.