The Start of Something Good - OM!

I got a request from an Etsy customer (okay, it's my aunt . . . I still haven't gotten a stranger order yet!) for a mediation floor cushion. Color palette - and this is a quote, "I'm thinking dark and gooey" - caramel, burgundy and deep violet.  I would have never picked out those colors.  I guess it's the toddlers running around my house, but I'm way into rainbow bright cheery colors lately.  But they seriously look amazing together!  I want to redo (um . . . do) my living room in these colors.  I'm going to make 7 of these mandalas and sew them together for the cushion top.  I'm really excited about how these are coming out and can't wait to see the finished product.
I actually had a really hard time finding these colors in my normal yarn haunts, so I ended up going to the most amazing yarn shop ever - the Yarn Garden in Hawthorne!!!  Huge selection of tons and tons of great yarns at all different price ranges and really nice sales people.  People from Portland are probably tsk tsking me right now for not having gone sooner, I have heard that it is great, but seriously I didn't know that it would be that great.  Worth crossing the river for this place.
I'm doing this with Cascade 128 chunky wool, which will be nice and soft on the bum, making it more conducive for meditation.  Side note:  I love making granny mandalas!  So fun, so pretty, and so easy.  This is the ultimate in instant crochet gratification.  For more inspiration in the mandala department check out Crochet with Raymond.  I would say that Alice (Crochet with Raymond's author) is hands down the Granny Mandala queen.