mayan vest | a free pattern

Sometimes things that seem like a disaster can turn into something wonderful. The Mayan Vest is one of those wonderful things that came about through a disaster most horrid.

Last year I had been making a blanket using some stashed Drops Alpaca. It wasn't really well thought out or planned but I liked the idea of making striped granny squares and just went from there. To be honest it was a fairly silly idea because alpaca is quite a delicate yarn and not suited for blanket making at all, and so when the disaster happened it was kinda expected....a bit.

One evening I was working on the blanket and Betsy had come down from her bath stating that she was cold. I wrapped the blanket over her legs and we started laughing as her toes poked through the holes in the granny squares. This went on for quite a while, I thought it was funny, hilarious in fact, it made me laugh. Until I picked up the blanket after she'd gone to bed. It was then that I realised her toes had ripped holes right the way through the blanket. It was ruined!

I had a bit of a cry, put the mess away in a cupboard and forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago I had a design idea for a granny squares top and seeing as I had all these granny squares going for a song (wasting away in a dreary cupboard), I decided to get them out, cut away the bad bits and re-use them.

So that's the story of how the Mayan Vest came into being. I kind of winged it a bit when I was putting it together, really just designing with myself in mind but it turned out lovely and can be so easily modified for all sizes, just adjust the number of squares used in the side panels to suit you.

EDIT DECEMBER 2022: THE PATTERN IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS A FREE PATTERN.

The pattern is now available to buy on either Ravelry or Etsy depending on your preference.