A New Trend for Summer: Crocheted Cuffs

For a long time I have been dreaming to design a crocheted bracelet with mandala. I saw so many leather cuffs and I liked them so much that I decided “to steal” the idea and to implement it in crochet. As a result I’ve created a series of three mandala cuffs. They all have the same construction: a circle medallion as a centre piece and wide band. I decided to make a closure with a button so that the length of bracelet could be adjustable for different sizes of wrists. All bracelets are made in overlay crochet and offer and excellent chance to try this technique.

This is the first bracelet which has a square medallion shaped in circle. I even think it is not a mandala. Doing crochet every day I became totally wordless and uncreative and I could not think of a nice name for this design. I asked for help in a group on Facebook. And Amber Mund suggested to call it “Compass Cuff”.

Doesn’t it really look like a compass? I was even suggested to insert a real working watch to the center so that the bracelet could serve as a watch band. But I think the watch will hide central mandala… But I like this idea.

I used a circle of felt to hide the wrong side of my mandala. Though I try to weave in all ends thoroughly, sometimes it is better to hide them totally.

My second bracelet is called “Mandala Bracelet” :) I was so excited about its creation that I could not think about anything else but sharing it with everyone. That’s why the name is as it is. When I was testing my Compass Cuff, the testers (and RayOLR in particular) said that mandala might be very large. I am satisfied with what it looks like, but it is also true that mandala can wrap around the wrist and loose its circle shape (which I personally don’t mind at all).

But I was suggested to think about adjusting one and the same pattern for several sizes. So that the bracelet could suit both adults and kids! I imagined how cool it will be to write down the pattern of a bracelet which both mom and her little daughter could wear! And I wrote the pattern of my second mandala cuff for three sizes.

It’s true that yarn weight also plays a huge role in how the finished project looks like. One of the testers – FlyingFlower – took embroidery floss to crochet her bracelet. She also played with the colors of the band. And look what a fantastic project she’s got! The mandala’s size is much smaller than the original one is as I used Sport yarn (cotton yarn “Catania”) for it.

And here is a picture from another tester – Joanafvlf. I just love the colors she picked!

And finally my third mandala cuff – “Bloomy Bracelet”. I used three different variations of band for my bracelets. But I like this one most of all. It is made of rib – I crocheted all the rounds with single crochet stitches in back loops only. And the band became very nicely structured. This bracelet is designed in two sizes.

I couldn’t really define the style for my bracelets. I think it depends on yarn and colors you take. Sometimes they can look folk, or bohemian. But crocheted with neutral shades they can suite a wide variety of outfits. I’ve also designed a free pattern of a crocheted cuff of the same style – with lots of popcorn stitches. You can check it here.

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