This colorful crochet mandala comes from Divina Rocco of Island Style Crochet who says:
“I was born and raised in Hawaii, an Air Force Brat turned Army Wife! I especially enjoy turning my crochet projects into usable RAINBOWS!”
However it wasn’t rainbows per se that inspired the colors on this terrific crochet mandala, which was made using Wink’s 12-round standard crochet mandala free pattern. Instead, Divina explains:
“The color sequence for this mandala is based on “My Many Colored Days” by Dr. Seuss.”
I love this inspiration! In her letter, Divina writes:
“I first saw Wink’s mandalas on Pinterest and thought they were so pretty and colorful! I immediately found her on Ravelry and marked her as one of my fave designers. That led me to her blog, and I was blown away by her creative color combinations and obvious creativity. Then, to top it off, she was interviewed the very next month in one of my fave crochet magazines.
Well, my hubby is in the military, and we move a lot, so I missed out on her blog for a few months while we were in transition. When we finally for out WiFi back, I was cruising Pinterest (AGAIN!) and kept seeing all of these beautiful mandalas titled “Mandalas for Marinke” or “Mandalas for Wink”. I followed the links and found out the sad news, just a week before the anniversary of losing Ryan to the same disease.
Ryan was my son’s best friend all through high school and beyond. I always looked forward to his visits and kept extra soda and junk food in the house just for him! You know the way teenage boys will eat!! We all knew that he suffered from depression and struggled a bit after high school. But Ryan eventually started college and was doing well at work. He even got promoted! His Facebook posts were the usual sarcastic humor he loved and everything seemed to be coming up roses. Then just like that … we lost him.
It’s been more than a year now and I still can’t hold back the tears when I think of him. So as soon I as I found out about this project, I new that I would make one for Ryan. I based the color sequence on “My Many Colored Days” by Dr. Seuss, which always reminded me of him and his ever swirling emotions. The first mandala turned out so beautifully, I decided to send it to Ryan’s mother and made a second one to submit here.
I am a crochet master, and I have always taught for free. Crochet was a soothing way to fill the time whenever my hubby was deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, or on Temporary Duty (TDY) at a myriad of places around the world. Plus, my hubby’s soldiers always loved getting the homemade goodies when they were so far away from home! My hope is that sharing my crochet skills will bring the same joy and comfort to all of the military spouses, military “brats” and Soldiers that I’ve taught at Army posts all over the world.
Thank you, Wink, for all of the colorful inspiration! Aloha Nui <3
I love Dr. Seuss. (A quote of his was my senior quote in my yearbook.) But somehow I’d never heard of My Many Colored Days. So I looked it up:
I love it, particularly as it relates to my experience of depression, and I like the ending lines: “Then comes a mixed up day and WHAM! I don’t know who or what I am. But it all turns out all right you see. And I go back to being ME!”
I have only recently joined the world of Pinterest at the same time as rediscovering Crochet. I had just begun to see and enjoy all the beautiful mandalas made by Marinke and even read a few of her posts. Then I discovered the sad news. I lost my youngest son 19 years from the same sad illness. Tonight I found Divina’s beautiful mandala of My Many Colors. The post was lovingly touching and heartfelt. I have pinned a number of Marinke’s patterns to work on and now I’ve added Divina’s as well. Thank you for your heartfelt inspiration and the mandala. I hope to finish a few for Christmas gifts…. The Sacred Circle! So very special.
I feel so much sadness for your loss, for all of these losses. Hugs, hugs, hugs.