As I was trying to work on taxes for three business and freelance work, the title of this book kept screaming at me, Crochet Yourself Calm by Carmen Heffernan.

I picked this book up on a whim after seeing it for sale on Zulily while shopping for Christmas presents for the kids. The mandala on the cover was beautiful and, of course, it was the first project I wanted to do.

After having to order more and more yarn for my 2018 Temperature Blanket, I ended up with a lot leftover. I dug out this book with the mandala in mind. I think they turned out great!

This book isn’t completely what I expected. It teaches a lot of motifs, but doesn’t have a lot of patterns for completed projects. The projects it does have are beautiful though. The patterns are well written.

If you are creative, you will have no problem putting the motifs together or adding them to another project. (There is a section on joining in the back of the book.)

If you are new to crocheting, there is a stitch guide in the back, lots of full color pictures, and even some diagrams!

My one caution: There will be ends to weave in. Lots and lots of ends, but if you’ve been following me long, you know I’m used to that.

I decided to do one mandala in warm colors and one in cool colors. I love the juxtaposition of the two together.

As stand alones, there would be great doilies. I can see three or four across the top of my piano. It would add a lot of elegance.