Another One Bites the Dust!

It's the end of January and I have another item off my bucket list. That makes two and two was my goal. This Mandala rug was the main one I wanted to do. I knew I would be buying the yarn to do this at some point this year. In a post about new stash I had shown you a picture of the Boodles t-shirt yarn. Here it is all crocheted up into the rug. I am again proud of myself for being able to follow the pattern. Especially since it was in American terminology. In truth it was made up entirely of trebles and chains so it wasn't that hard.

It was actually hardest on my poor arms. The hook I needed was so big that none of the stores had it and I had to order it on line. You can see the difference between the 15mm and the 4mm I used for the baby blankets. You can't quite hold it the same way. It meant I had to take breaks from it. Although I would crochet to the point where my arm was in agony. It was just too fun watching it grow.

 It's big enough for me to sit in the middle of. I think it's just a nice size. To be honest it should have been two or three rounds bigger but this was already taking up more yarn than planned and I wasn't for buying more.

The reason being is that I do not recommend Boodles t-shirt yarn. The original pattern recommended zpaggetti yarn. That was the yarn that I was originally going to get because it offered more colours. However, as you seen already, I spotted the exact colours I wanted in the Boodles and I couldn't help myself. It meant I could have the yarn there and then rather than order it. This is why it doesn't pay to be impatient. This rug took up 4 1/2 balls of yarn where the pattern said 3. Keeping in mind I stopped two or three rows earlier in the pattern. The red ball was significantly smaller than the blue but I though I would have enough to do a few rounds in the middle and then the edging. The red only lasted for half the edging and then I had to take it out.

Just as annoying is the quality. There are constant joins through it. In some places they were tied together and in others they were badly stitched with white thread. The yarn also went incredibly thin  in places which has distorted some of my stitches. Probably to the thickness of a DK type yarn. Then there is the colours. You can see from this that the last round and the border is done in a different shade of blue. It would seem that boodles doesn't differentiate between shades. It just lists everything as blue. I ordered more online. The photo was the same shade that I had used and I received a very pale blue. I thought this was just a mistake of the store but when I went into the store I saw that there were three distinct shades of blue and they were all listed as the same colourway. The border was the closest I could get to mine.

In short, I loved the pattern. I am very pleased with the end result. I would like to do this again but I will be more patient next time and stick with the recommended yarn. A friend of mine has used the both this and the zpaggetti and has said there is a huge difference in quality.