Sierra Mandala Vest

After my success with making the Summer Fruits tank top, I decided I wanted to continue trying to crochet clothing. I had originally made a list of tank tops I thought were cute to work through, but that no longer captured my interest since the seasons have changed. I saw a few different mandala vests on Instagram and was especially intrigued with the Sierra Mandala vest by Hannah Martin from Of Mars Crochet. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to make this work due to my never-ending gauge issues, but I bought the pattern from Etsy anyway to give it a shot since I thought it would look lovely in my Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in Clown Car.

The pattern was well written and easy for me to follow. My struggle was gauge (which is always a problem for me) and my own inability to QA my work as I went along. To attempt fix my gauge issue, I sized up to a 5.5mm (I) hook. I was still a bit off so I just followed the instructions for the size L/XL to make up for it so it would fit my size M body. The other issue was my own inability count and/or missing stitches - one day I will learn to QA myself after each round/row so I don’t have to rip back to fix something way later and make myself grumpy in the process.

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The vest turned out beautifully. The cupcake yarn was a great choice and I liked the way it changed colors throughout the vest. I’m curious about making this again in a solid color (perhaps black or white for Halloween?) to see if I would like it as much as using a self striping yarn. This pattern also comes in a sweater version that I’d eventually like to try (though I think I’d skip the self striping yarn there since I’d have a hard time with lack of color symmetry in the sleeves).

I’m still feeling super grateful to have my love of crochet back again since it’s helping me get through a very busy time at work, the days with the least sunlight of the year, and a really tough year for all overall. <3