Here is a free crochet pattern to make a small simple open mandala or doily.

I’ve written this pattern but it is from a piece of crochet by someone else. If I find out who or where of course I will add links and credit them.

Let me tell you the background story to this free crochet pattern! If you’re not interested in my rambling story just scroll on down to the pattern bit!!

My mother in law is a wonderful crocheter. She does mostly fine crochet with teeny tiny hooks and crochet cotton and makes all sorts of pretty things. This is a very different style to me, I don’t normally have the patience for such fine work. I’m more about chunkier yarns with hooks in the 4mm to 6mm range, I like making blankets and hats normally.

When I was little my maternal grandma was also a great crocheter. She did the whole range from the very fine stuff to wooly and warm. My nan wasn’t a big fan of written patterns though. She could work from a chart or she would recreate a piece from an actual existing piece of crochet or even from a photograph. I used to find this ability amazing, I couldn’t see how she could possibly recreate an item just by looking at it. As I’ve learnt to crochet and have more experience however, I have gradually come to see how she did it. Crochet is just a few basic stitches so it is possible to see what’s been done just by looking carefully.

A few months ago my mother in law gave me a couple of tiny doily style motifs and asked if I could find the patterns for her online. She had made them years ago but had lost the original patterns. I searched and searched with no luck but with a bit of experimenting I’ve been able to recreate them myself. My mother in law has then pattern tested for me and we are both happy with the results. She is happy as she can make more of the pretty designs and I am happy because I can share them with you.

This is what I was given to work from. It is really small, about 9cm (3.5” ) in diameter.

After a lot of counting and experimenting, this is what I came up with. This is straight off the hook before it was blocked or anything.

I had a couple of old bamboo bag handles which I’d rescued from a bag and so I experimenting turning this doily into a wall hanging. Dead easy to do, I just tied the mid points of the mandala doily picot sections evenly around the wooden bag handle.

What to make one? It’s a fairly simple crochet pattern, suitable for people with some crochet knowledge but masses of experience is not necessary. I’ll wizz through the pattern in UK terms with some photos for the slightly tricky bits and then talk about sizes, hooks, yarn etc.

I’ve not taken photos of the more basic sections but if I get feedback from you all that it would be helpful I can make another and take more pictures! The only really awkward bit is the trebles at the end of each round of chain loops. By doing a treble to finish the round instead of another chain means you finish in the right place for the next round and don’t have to do a load of slip stitches to get to where you need to be. You’ll see what I mean as we go along.

Free Diamond Mesh Crochet Mandala Doily Pattern

UK Crochet Terms

sl st – Slip Stitch

dc – double crochet

trbl – treble

picot – 3 chain, sl st into 3rd chain from the hook

 (Remember if you are used to working in US crochet terms simply swap dc for a sc and trbl for dc, the rest should be the same)

To start: Chain 4, join with a slst into first chain to form a ring.

Round 1: chain 3, counts as 1 trbl, work 15 trbl into the ring, slst into top of the 3 chain to join. (16 stitches)

Round 2: chain 8, trbl into next stitch *chain 5, trbl into next stitch. Repeat from * 14 times to last stitch. Chain 3, trbl into 3rd stitch of original 8 chain. (16 loops)

Round 3: Chain 5, dc into middle of the first loop of round 2. Repeat all the way round until you have worked 15 loops then chain 3 and trbl into the top of the trbl from round 2.   

Round 4: repeat round 3

Round 5: Chain 6, dc into middle of the first chain loop of round 4. Repeat all the way round until you have worked 15 loops then chain 4 and trbl into the top of the trbl from round 4.

Round 6: Chain 6, dc into middle of the first chain loop of round 5. Repeat all the way round until you have worked 15 loops then chain 6 and sl st into the top of the trbl from round 5.

It should look something like this:

Round 7: *Work 6 dc into 6 chain loop of previous round. Work (1 dc, 1 picot, 2 trbl, 1 picot, 2 trbl, 1 picot, 2 trbl, 1 picot,2 trbl, I picot, 1 x dc) into the next 6 chain loop.  Repeat from * 7 more times. When you get back to the beginning, sl st into top of first dc to join. Weave in ends.

That’s it, your mandala or doily is finished.

As you can see I changed the colours this time. Round 1 and 2 were worked in pink, round 3 in pale pink, round 4 in yellow, round 5 in orange and rounds 6 and 7 in watermelon.

The yarns I used here are a fine cotton from Flying Tiger. It’s pretty thin, probably 2 ply (although it doesn’t give details on the band) and feels like a fingering or sock weight to me.

For the orange version I used a 3mm hook and it came out 17.5cm (7”) in diameter from picot to picot. It fitted ok into the bag handle hoop I had but was just a little looser than I would have liked so I worked the multi coloured one with a 2.5mm hook. This made it just a little firmer and it measures 16cm (6.5”)

My mother in law was my pattern tester. She used a fine crochet cotton and a 1.5mm hook. Her lovely version is just 9cm (3.5”) across. It looks like she did dc instead of trbl (UK version) in between the picots on that last round, it still turned out great though didn’t it? That’s what I like about crochet, you can do quite a bit of variation or fudging and it usually works out ok.

Here they are all together for comparison.

I love the look of the mandala in a hoop like this so I do intend to do the same with the colourful version. The other bag handle was not in such good condition so I just need to work out how to manage that and then I’ll add pictures here.

This design can be worked in pretty much any weight of yarn and with any suitable hook. If you do try it please do let me know, maybe tag me in an IG or FB pic.

As well as a wall hanging in a hoop it could make a nice coaster, table mat, maybe a card topper if it were a tiny, fine version or even just a traditional doily.

I will add a simple no frills printable version to my Etsy shop soon too, I’ll let you know when that’s live.

I’ll be sharing this idea at these link ups