Crochet Cardigan/Sweater Finally Completed!

For those who didn’t believe it would ever happen (mainly me and maybe my sister who it’s for), I finally finished plugging up all those holes in my first ever crochet sweater (coat, cardigan). It’s been three years in the making, and I just couldn’t let another winter go by without finishing it.

What an incredibly stupid thing to do! I can’t believe I actually allowed myself to plug up all those holes. I would definitely not recommend it to anyone. It took so long to do each square and was tiring on my hands. I could barely tolerate doing two squares a day. That’s why it took me so long to finish it. I don’t usually abandon my crochet projects like that. Sure, I get tired of something and don’t want to do it anymore, but that’s a true abandonment. I give up on it with no intention to finish it. I’m ok with that.

This, THIS, was different. I wanted to finish it. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was so easy to just say I would do a few more squares another day, and then ignore it. I would have days of motivation and thought, “This is it! I’m going to finish!” I would do a few squares, think it wasn’t so bad and that I would do a few more the next day and then, you guessed it, nada, zilch, less than zilch.

But then, winter was coming (ok, winter was here), a third winter since I’d started. How could I face my sister again without a finished sweater! How could I let her go cold another winter?! I had to finish!

And I finally did. I had a laser sharp focus and didn’t work on anything else and it finally happened. I wish I could say it was all worth it, but it wasn’t. Halfway through, I thought about just ripping out all the plugs I had already done and just sewing on a fabric lining. I couldn’t bring myself to cut out all that hard work though. When I was done, it looked pretty, but all those plugs make it drape differently. I don’t like it as much as I did before the plugs. Maybe all that work makes me biased against that dumb sweater. Hopefully my sister will like it better than I do.

But alas, it is done and I bid it adieu.

Advertisement

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

Bavarian Crochet Sweater/Coat/Cardigan

It’s done! I can finally wear it when it’s cold again. I really like this one. It feels great and I’m happy with it’s length. My friend saw it and says she wants one. She’s been telling me she wants one since I made the first one (which I’m still plugging away at, literally, plugging up the holes), the second one, which I gave to my sister, and now this third one. Maybe I’ll give it to her and start a fourth one. Or maybe I’ll start a fourth one and pick my favorite and give her the other one. We’ll see. 🙂 Oh, and another one I promised my other sister! I better get busy!

I’ll be warn come winter although I was roasting in it for the picture. It was 90º!

 

There’s the back.

You can see the shell edging I did at the end of the sleeves and around the the bottom and up the front of the coat.

I’m still thinking of adding a pocket. It was a mistake on my part not to have built the pocket in when I was sewing it up. It would have been so easy. Now I have to cover up one of the squares in order to add it on top. That’s the only thing stopping me from doing it but my hands instinctively want to go in a pocket so I just might have to do it.

The Finished Sweater (Sort of)

The sweater is done and ready for its debut…in the Winter. I would say Fall but our Autumns are still warm. Now I can finally say I made the sweater I’ve been wanting to make for years. It’s my first attempt so I’m not surprised it could have been better.

Shows the sweater with the edging.

Close to finishing the crochet sweater

 

Front View

I hadn’t planned on finishing the crochet sweater any time soon. I was going to take my time sewing the squares, finishing the edging, and possibly plugging the holes. But…I couldn’t help myself! I started sewing and couldn’t stop. Then I had the bright idea that the sleeves had to be longer so I made more squares. Then I knew the sweater had to be longer so I made some more squares. Then I sewed and sewed. I un-sewed a few times when I noticed some mistakes I couldn’t live with. Then I sewed some more. Did I ever mention I can become obsessive about my crochet? When I had the hood, the body and one sleeve put together, I tried it on. Eck! The sleeves were too long! Luckily, I hadn’t woven in the ends to all the squares so most were easily taken off but there was one, one that I did weave in and accidentally cut the corner of the square. I was able to save it rather than replace it since it was a square that had already been solidly added to the sweater. I also saw that I didn’t really need to add more squares to the length of the thing but it didn’t hurt either so I just left it.