On June 29th I opened my WordPress “Reader” as usual and read through the latest blog posts, commenting as I went, again, as usual. Then something that was far from usual happened.

A Creative Being popped up but, instead of being treated to one of Wink’s entertaining narratives or crochet works of art, her sister was the unwilling author informing us gently that Wink had taken her own life.

Wink, whose name was Marinke, was well known in the crochet world as contributing to the book ‘Crochet Saved My Life’ – she suffered from depression which finally became too much to bear.

Kathryn from the blog Crochet Concupiscence, is organising a collaborative art project in Wink’s honour and to raise awareness of this dreadful illness. If you would like to make a mandala for the cause, you can find out how at #MandalasForMarinke

This is the mandala I made from one of Wink’s own patterns (which you can find here for free) which is already winging its way to Kathryn in America.

On a much lighter note – I won a giveaway!!!

Amy, from the wonderful ‘Yarnaway’ blog was giving away all this yarny loveliness which I was over the moon to receive!

There is an amazing book which I cannot wait to get stuck into…….

……three balls of gorgeous yarn and a crochet hook……

……and a zipped pouch, all of which was tucked into a useful tote.

THANK YOU Amy!

I’m so thrilled to be the winner – the only problem is deciding which of the numerous fabulous patterns in the book to make…..