In my continued quest to use up the mandala yarn that I acquired so much of in 2020 and 2021, I came across this Crochet Star Halter Crop Top Tutorial from Mrs Moon & Heaven on YouTube and thought it was super cute. The problem was that I wouldn’t be comfortable in a halter top that tied like this - I wanted more coverage. So what did I do? I decided to figure out how to smoosh two of these star panels into some kind of tank top that I would actually wear. It took me a few weeks, but I did it!

I recently decided it was time to use the mandala yarn I bought a bunch of in 2021, so I chopped it up into individual colors and went on the hunt for suitable patterns. I came across the Woodstock Crop Top pattern by Jane Green of Beautiful Crochet Stuff on Hobbii’s website. It looked like a cute pattern for my stashbusting goal (and it was free!), so it quickly became my fifth project in Operation Crochet Warm Weather Stuff.

CrochetwithAlannaMiall’s Wonderland top is the third clothing project I ever crocheted back in 2021. Unfortunately, I don’t wear it a lot - the yarn I chose makes it fairly heavy and droopy and I don’t love the ties. I’ve crocheted many clothing items and learned a lot since then, so I decided to make a new version that I think I’ll wear more. This version is short sleeved, tie-less, longer, and uses yarn that I frogged out of my 1st Nami top (because the variegation absolutely killed the stitch definition and that made me sad).

I made crochetwithalannamiall‘s Aviva dress back in early 2023. That dress is one of my favorites (both that I’ve crocheted and that I own in general), so I decided I should make a top version as my third project for Operation Crochet Warm Weather Stuff.

The second top I chose to make as part of Operation Crochet Warm Weather Stuff is the HOLEsome top from mermaidsyarns. It was a quick make for me (about 2 weeks) and I love the finished look.