The Crochet Coats – Sweaters So Far

My three sweater coats

This was the first and is my favorite in the ‘looks’ category. I’m still working on this one.

This is the second one and I love the star stitch but I had a few mistakes that were bothering me. This one went to my sister.

Here’s the current one. This one is my favorite in the ‘how it feels’ category but it’s not my favorite to look at. But I do like it a lot overall. I might add pockets and I might, might I say, give this a friend who likes it.

So now I’ve finished three coats but the first of the three is still waiting to be plugged up. As a reminder, I finished that first one ages ago.

It’s the only one that had a hood. It’s the only one I bought special yarn for (and by special I mean it’s not the really cheap stuff I usually buy but not expensive by any means). Loved it but quickly discovered the yarn I chose made it too hot for light wear but too cold and breezy for warm wear. I had a bright and big idea to plug up the holes. But how to do that? I thought of and discarded different ideas. I tried a few and settled on making little plugs that needed to be sewn into the gaps.

Each square has eight gaps and I had over 78 squares! That meant making over 600 plugs!

I started my plugs (nowhere near what I needed) in purple (because I love purple) and quickly realized how mind numbing it is to sew tiny plugs in the gaps of a granny square.

Looks like stained glass. Beautiful but mind numbing!

I’m a pretty quick crocheter if I do say so myself, but sewing in these tiny plugs takes me about an hour to complete just one square. That’s because you have to sew and weave very carefully to make it look good and neat. I didn’t anticipate it would take me so long per square.

But I had already done too many squares to turn back AND they were looking really pretty once done.

But unfortunately, it became so mind numbing, I kept putting it down and forgetting about it, even though I was still determined to fix it with plugs. At one point, I did five squares in one sitting, determined that I would keep going but I didn’t come back to it for many, many (many many many) months!

Then I had a stern talk with myself and asked if I was committed or should I come up with a different solution. Clearly I was avoiding working on it. I made a deal with myself that I would finish the border and hood and then I would reconsider a new solution.

Well, I’m proud to say I finished the border and the hood and started on the sleeves. I should have started with the sleeves because when you try it on, your fingers slip through the gaps! But since I’ve been so diligent in plugging up the holes, I ran out of plugs and I couldn’t remember how I made them! I thought I had left the hook I used in the bag, but I didn’t.

I un-made a plug I already had to see how I made it and guessed at the hook size. No more messing around! It was time to get serious. I counted up how many squares I had left (51!) and how many new plugs I needed to make (408!) and got busy making them and bundling them into groups of eight. I got as far as 80 plugs when I realized I was going to run out of that purple yarn way before I reached 408. I was hoping I could find that color yarn again or it would be time for plan F. I was way beyond plan B. LOL Luckily, I found the right color at the store.

So now, I just need to make sure I don’t give up on it again. I will finish making those tedious plugs and then I will commit to just one square a day and if I can do more, great, if not, one-a-day is fine. That will take me right into September and that’s just fine.