During the month of March, Crochetville organises a blog tour to celebrate National Crochet Month.  Almost 100 designers from around the world participate and today is my turn.

The theme for the blog tour this year is GLAMPING and I thought I would first share some of my experience of glamping.  I confess I have never slept under canvas of any type and when asked about my experiences I didn’t even think I’d been glamping!  But I have been on safari in Africa and had some memorable nights in the most wonderful glamping type safari lodge.  This is the room and view

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Rustic bed

The ‘bungalow’ was built into the hillside and thatched with open sides (with mossie-proof curtaining at night) and a lovely little terrace/balcony with a view to die for.   Waking up at sunrise watching the elephants on the plains from the terrace was mesmerising.  The furniture was all locally made and very rustic and the textiles were fantastic.   The lodge is called Elsa’s Kopje and is built on the hill where Elsa the lion roamed.

Looking at these photos again reminded me of the colours of Kenya, which was in drought when I visited, and it inspired me to start using this little collection of yarn that I have had in my stash for ages.  You’ll have to wait and see what I make 🙂

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Whilst preparing for this blog I decided to design something which you can all make –  a colourful mandala.  I had been aware of crochet mandalas for some years but was never inspired to make any until 2 years ago.  Mandalas have great spiritual significance, and crocheted mandalas are not used simply for decoration; they are used as colour therapy and in meditation, and can be so soothing to make.  At the time I designed my very first crochet mandala I was in need of a soothing lift and playing with crochet and colour was the perfect therapy for me.  So I thought what better way to share the joy of crochet with you this month than a special mandala.

So this is the one I designed for NatCroMo, it is called Ivy Mandala:

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It is small and has texture as well as colour.  The pattern can be found here.  If you purchase through Ravelry and use the code IVY on checkout you will be able to purchase it for free.  This code is valid until the end of March (midnight GMT on 31st).

In addition, in celebration of this month of crochet all my patterns on Ravelry can be purchased at 10% discount until the end of March – use code CROMO17 at checkout (one use per person).

March isn’t over yet and there are more blogs and offers planned by Crochetville – so keep your eye on their website and join in the fun!

Happy crocheting xxx