Make • Modify • Move On: Design #846 — Sparkling Tiers Knit Crochet Vest

Welcome to the first Make • Modify • Move On, a new series where I revisit designs from my archive—one pattern at a time—and ask a simple question:

Would I make it again, modify it, or move on?

After more than 20 years of designing knit and crochet patterns, I have a catalog of more than 1,000 designs. Some I remember intimately. Others can genuinely surprise me when I see them again.

That’s part of the fun.

For this series, I use a random number generator to choose a design from my catalog. I don’t carefully curate the winners or quietly skip the awkward ones. Whatever number comes up is what we’re looking at. And I intentionally do this while filming the segment for my podcast to put myself on the spot, too. Why not? I love the element of surprise.

And for the very first round on The Kristin Omdahl Show, the random number generator gave me…

#846: the Sparkling Tiers Knit and Crochet Vest.

Looking Back at Sparkling Tiers

The Yarn—and the Story Behind It

Looking at Sparkling Tiers brings back much more than memories of the design itself. It takes me back to Tilli Tomas Yarns and its owner, Tracey.

I met Tracey at a yarn convention in Indianapolis in the early 2000s—possibly the first industry trade show I ever attended. I can still remember walking into her booth and being absolutely dazzled.

Tilli Tomas had the most gorgeous hand-dyed silk yarns. Some had tiny crystals already strung onto the yarn. Others had miniature sequins worked right into them. These were luxurious, unusual yarns unlike anything I had seen before, and my enthusiasm must have been pretty obvious.

Tracey and I hit it off immediately.

I think she loved my excitement about her yarns, but I had also arrived at that convention with something that, looking back, was a pretty smart instinct from another part of my life: a portfolio.

Coming from a modeling background, bringing a portfolio to present myself and my work seemed completely natural to me. So I brought one along to show the yarn companies and publishers I met.

That trip became an important moment in my career. I met representatives from many yarn companies and publishing companies and began relationships that would lead to freelance design work for years to come.

Tracey and Tilli Tomas were part of that chapter.

And that’s one of the unexpected pleasures of revisiting more than 1,000 designs this way. I’m not only rediscovering patterns. I’m rediscovering the people, places, opportunities and relationships woven into them.

Tilli Tomas Yarns no longer exist, so I couldn’t simply remake Sparkling Tiers in its original yarn even if I wanted to. But I’m not sure I would want to.

Those extraordinary silk-and-sparkle yarns belong to the story of the original design.

The Design

If I revisit #846 today, I’d rather let a new yarn become part of its next chapter.

Sparkling Tiers is a sleeveless knit vest featuring a relatively simple knit upper section that transitions into multiple tiers of elongated, open crochet lace.

The original sample was worked in a beautiful pink yarn with sparkle running through it, giving the entire piece a soft shimmer.

Looking at it again all these years later, there are things I still really like about this design.

The silhouette has movement. The cascading lace tiers are interesting and unusual. And I still like the contrast between the more solid fabric at the shoulders and bust and the dramatic openness below.

But would I make it exactly the same way today?

No.

And that’s where this gets interesting.

My Verdict: MODIFY

This one is absolutely a Modify for me.

The bones of the idea are still intriguing, but if I were designing it today, there are several things I’d want to explore differently.

First, the yarn.

The original yarn company is no longer in business, so recreating the design would require choosing a completely different yarn anyway. Rather than trying to imitate the original exactly, I’d use that as an opportunity to rethink the fabric.

I’d be curious to see what those tiers look like in a modern yarn with beautiful drape—perhaps something smoother and less sparkly, or even in a completely different color story.

I’d also revisit the proportions and styling.

The original vest has a distinctly early-2010s feel to me now. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—fashion is a wonderful time capsule—but I wouldn’t want to simply reproduce it and pretend nothing has changed.

I’d want to ask:

What would this idea look like if I designed it today?

Maybe the tiers become longer and more fluid. Maybe the upper body changes. Maybe the silhouette becomes more dramatic. Maybe one element disappears completely. I think the upper body could have been worked in a thinner yarn like the lower body for a more flattering silhouette. And I think there could be more shaping in the yoke, possibly a raglan yoke which would offer a cap sleeve. And I would add closure to the front, whether a corset tie, buttons or something else.

Maybe I could showcase it three ways: an all knit version, all crochet version and a knit and crochet version, like the original.

I don’t know yet.

And that’s precisely why I’m putting it in the Modify pile.

That’s the Point of Revisiting Old Work

I don’t believe looking back at your creative work has to mean judging the person who made it. Every design represents what I knew, what interested me, what materials were available to me, what was fashionable and where I was creatively at that particular moment in time.

Twenty years of designing should change a designer. I’d be disappointed if I looked at everything I’ve ever created and thought, Yep. Wouldn’t change a thing. Growth should give us different answers. And sometimes an old idea contains the seed of something completely new.

That’s what I see when I look at Sparkling Tiers. I don’t necessarily want this exact vest again. But I absolutely want to know what the idea behind this vest could become now.

Make • Modify • Move On

That’s what this series is going to explore.

MAKE — I still love it. I’d happily make it again.

MODIFY — There’s something here I want to revisit, but I’d change the yarn, construction, proportions, styling—or perhaps completely reimagine the original idea.

MOVE ON — It had its moment. I’m glad I made it, but I don’t feel compelled to revisit it.

There are more than 1,000 designs in my archive, and I’m letting a random number generator decide where we go next.

Some will make me nostalgic.

Some may make me wonder what on earth I was thinking. 😂

And every once in a while, I suspect an old design is going to spark an entirely new one.

Sparkling Tiers #846 has officially landed in the Modify pile.

Now we’ll see if—and when—it finds its way back onto my needles.

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Watch the Episode

I revisited Sparkling Tiers live on camera during Episode 1176 of The Kristin Omdahl Show, including my first reactions and thoughts about what I might change.

Watch Episode 1176 + Read the Show Notes

And when #846 eventually returns as a newly imagined design, I’ll update this post with the new pattern and its story so you can see exactly where the original idea went.

Until then…

Make. Modify. Move On.

Let us make time to create, share and inspire today and every day.

xoxo, Kristin

About Kristin Omdahl

Kristin Omdahl is an author, designer, and lifelong maker with more than 20 years of experience creating crochet and knit patterns, books, tutorials, recipes, and creative projects. With more than 1,000 designs published worldwide, her work blends creativity, technique, curiosity, and a love of storytelling.

She is the host of The Kristin Omdahl Show, where she shares the creative process behind what she’s making, explores ideas and rabbit holes, revisits more than two decades of creative work, and finds inspiration in everything from yarn and color to recipes, math, travel, and everyday life.

Kristin is also the author of The Sea Glass Journal, a novel about creativity, self-discovery, and beginning again, set against the beauty of coastal living. Its world continues to inspire many of the recipes, patterns, projects, and stories she shares.

Explore The Kristin Omdahl Show, more than 1,000 knit and crochet patterns, tutorials, recipes, books, and more at KristinOmdahl.com.

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