Valerie's Crochet 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 Mandalas

This contribution to the Mandalas for Marinke project consists of two beautiful, unique, crochet mandalas.

The first is a rainbow version of Wink’s free crochet mandala pattern for the 12-round standard mandala. It’s worked in a variegated rainbow yarn and the way that the colors natural stripe creates a visually stunning spiral of hues that makes the piece looks like it undulates.

The second is Wink’s crochet spoke mandala pattern, worked in shades of green, for a soft, comforting, finished feel.

Meet the Maker

This crochet contribution comes from Valerie of @thegirllovesyarn on Instagram where she shares, “I love crochet, all things cute and fuzzy, and nature”. For this project, she tells us:

“I didn’t know Wink in real life, or even online, until after her death. But, as someone who suffers from depression, her story definitely touched me. Her story could have been mine. While I have suffered from mild depression for most of my life, I hit a very deep depression several years ago. I contemplated suicide myself.

On a whim, a friend of mine who knew I was struggling sent me a link to a YouTube video on how to crochet. I had tried before but was unsuccessful, so I had a yarn and hook on hand. I got them out and watched the video and crocheted along with the instructor. And something just clicked. It gave me something to do, something to focus on instead of my troubles.

I posted that first effort to Instagram so my friend could see. And to my amazement, I had complete strangers “liking” it and encouraging me to keep going. I discovered there was a whole community of fiber artists to share with, and to get inspiration and encouragement from, which was something I just didn’t have in real life.

Crochet gave me something to be proud of, when I felt like I had nothing else.

So, while I may not have know Wink life, her death still hurts. I hope her family can take comfort in the fact that her life and death are reassign so much awareness about the monster that is depression and suicide. Maybe she will even help save someone else’s life.”

Words from Wink

On 2/1/13, Wink shared her first video with us, a video of how she crochets. She wrote:

“Ever since I started to crochet, people have been telling me that I either ‘do it wrong’ or ‘do it weird’. Yup, and I have to live with that! I believe that everyone should crochet in the way they’re comfortable with, be it a knife hold, a pencil grip or a weird way. So I decided to make a video, to show you all just how weird my way is.”

Depression Awareness

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.

Today I wanted to share something that I found interesting in an author interview recently. It’s about mindfulness for depression and how it’s a really important thing but it needs support as well. Author Elisha Goldstein, PhD, says:

“In working with hundreds of people I came to find that mindfulness or awareness is a foundation, but there are other things that also seem to be supportive. I knew that many people who had experienced many bouts of depression seemed to struggle with conjuring an integral healing element — self-compassion. This is the understanding that we are suffering in a particular moment with the inclination to want to be kind to ourselves. It’s also the understanding that we aren’t alone in this struggle. When I started teaching techniques on how to strengthen this, it seemed to really be the scaffolding that others needed to make it come alive.”

This makes a lot of sense to me. Self-compassion is hard to cultivate, particularly in the face of depression, but seems like such a key ingredient in fighting the negativity that comes with the disease.

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.