Boho Romantic Fall Crochet Grannie Square Coat

Ok I am trying this coat again .  I’ve talked about it before but I’m going to again. First off, it’s the best grannie square coat I’ve seen.  The general layout is far and away better than a coat full of grannie squares which to me are just way too danged busy.

That being said, couple of things.

1. Don’t use Red Heart Unforgettable.  It literally tears apart with any strain, especially against the heavy stitches that make the cool texture on the sides of the coat and arms. I personally wouldn’t use that yarn for anything but a scarf and even then, treat it like spidersilk.
2. The layered front post DC stitches drew me to this coat originally but you have to understand how thick it makes the ‘fabric’.  Layer after layer of front post DCs on top of each other make it thick and it ends up curling in on itself.  That’s not a big deal because you sew the ends together, but then your inner border now, should really ALSO be just as thick and it won’t be. The stitches we use on a project should be standardized across a garment, imo.
3. The little triangle panel ends up being stiff and then the coat lays weird. I chose to just keep a side-slit.
4. If you do 7 squares in the front and back, the back of your coat ends up shorter than your front because your body isn’t a sheet of paper, you need room for your shoulders.
5. Basic granny squares suck, find something cooler.

Fixes:

1. Just don’t use it.  Use Lion Brand Landscapes or something like Premier Colorfusion Chunky, Autumn Sky has very similar colors to the coat in the pattern. That’s what I’m using.  It’s not even really chunky.
2. I think I will just do HDCs.  The layered front post DC’s look super cool but yeah.  Just doesn’t match anything else about the coat.
3. I chose to just keep a side-slit.
4. Not sure yet, maybe it’ll be ok.  I was thinking of doing 15 squares, 7 front 1, shoulder, 7 back, but then it messes up the back count. Maybe?  The hood/border might be able to take the difference off. I might try that.  I’ll have to draw it out or something.
5. I’m doing the sunflower grannie square.

Progress so far

Finished Lotus Flower Blanket

My mom gave me this yarn which I believe she purchased from a Goodwill or something.  Super Bulky Premier Yarns in color Winter Glow which had shades of off-white and purple.  Soft and very nice to crochet with I must say.  I kind of winged the pattern past the first two petal rows and then made up my own border.  I ended with about 1.5 yards left. It is heavy!  Apparently this company also makes Sweet Roll, which makes sense because they use colors that don’t fade into each other a lot.  Like … off-white and…. purple

But I cannot tell you how much I liked to use this yarn.  Just a nice soft feel and lovely to crochet with.

The last of the failed orange hat

Well I sold the hat I made with the Red Heart Ombre Cocoa that didn’t turn out to work with that orange hat I wanted to duplicate.  I used up the rest of the Red Heart Print Newspaper for this hat and I admit it came out nicer than I figured it would.  I used odds and ends of white I had held double strand with the Newspaper.

I’m tempted to add little red accents though, like blood drops.  You know, not literally ones but maybe those gemstone teardrop beads, but red ones!  I have some slightly greenish ones I might use for a sea hat though.

Lotus Flower… thingy?

Someone on reddit did a flower like this and I followed the youtube videos and I like it a lot.  It came out REALLY nice.  I’m not sure what to call it though, the video name was really bland for such a pretty pattern.  I’m also not sure what to do with it.  On reddit they said just leave it like this but what good would that be? It’s not a blanket, hat, or other wearable.  This was with Lion Brand Mandala Baby Mermaid, and I really, really like the colors.  I ended up doing a freehand row of green since that was next in line on the skein.  If this had been a 4 yarn I would continue as a blanket.  But, I am REALLY tempted to get a 4 yarn in these colors and make this again as a throw.  The problem is the later rows don’t expand enough to make the petals lay flat.  They kind of perk up a bit which is ok but you’ll see starting with the blue row in particular, you aren’t increasing the petals, it’s just offsetting it.  So you’d need a row here and there like the crocodile stitch mermaid tail to increase it out.  Now that I get the overall pattern I could totally do that.

I wouldn’t literally make an entire blanket like this, I would do about this same amount of rows in a 4 or 5 yarn and then square it off in a solid color like green with a somewhat simple stitch.

Making Donations Proud, Hopefully

My mom picked up this neat yarn from a garage sale or Goodwill or something, and it made me a little sad because it had a note on it and clearly no one ever used it.  But I did!

The note reads:

Donna, this is wool from Ireland.  It needs to be washed by band, otherwise is will felt.  Enjoy!

Debbie