Granny Stitch Coat

I am becoming a great fan of the granny stitch and Taylor Swift´s dress (which I showed on my previous post) has been an inspiration for me, this time round I did a long Coat/Cardigan!

Using more or less the same sequence of colors of the Taylor Swift dress (I have one more row), and with 4 colors this is the sequence:

4 rows of color 1

2 rows of color 2

1 row of color 3

1 row of color 4

1 row of color 3

1 row of color 4

1 row of color 3

Body of the coat:

Following the color pattern above I started with 350 chains and then did 37 rows to complete one body panel. I did this 2 times for 2 panels as below:

Sleeves:

Going on to the sleeves I started with 72 chains and went on following the same color sequence for 29 Rows.

On Row 30 and because I wanted a bluebell sleeve, I increased a 3 double crochet chin one and 3 double crochet at every 2 stitches of my previous row.

On Row 32 I continued increasing for my bluebell sleeve, and I increased a 3 double crochet chain one and 3 double crochet at every 3 stitches of my previous row.

Do this 2 times for the 2 sleeves you must end up with.

On The diagram below is a drawing, however, since we are working with the granny crochet stitch you must consider that every double crochet stitch in the drawing/pattern stands for 3 double crochet stitches (I do apologize but my pattern drawing is terrible).

When both sleeves are completed, you must then sow the sides together as explained on the diagram.

Assembly of body and sleeves

Firstly, you must fold the body panels in half length-wise and sow them together. You only sow one half (you are sowing the back of the coat) leaving the other half as is (front of the coat).

Once this is done you should put the coat down and see where the sleeves will be sowed in and mark that spot, once this is done on both sides you must sow the sides of the coat until the marked place to sow in the sleeves. Do this on both sides.

After it is time to sow in the sleeves of the coat to the body, you should started by sowing under the arm by lining up both parts which have been stitched (sleeve and body panel) and go around all the sleeve attaching the body panel to the sleeve.

If you have made this far you are almost there!

Collar

When I finished sowing the coat I decided to add a collar!

To do this I decided where I wanted my collar to start/finish at the front of the coat and then started a row of Granny Stiches all around

On the next row I increased one more granny stich at the second granny stitch of the 1st row and ended the row on my second last granny stitch of the first row - Thus increasing the collar width and decreasing its length.

I did this until I was happy with the width of the collar, in my case it was 10 Rows.

At the end I did a shell stich all aroind the collar.

The coll

Last but not least i crochetd a small belt but am not happy with it as soon as I have a more compelling one I will let you know!

Project Checklist

· Yarn – I cannot remember how much yarn I used … (must try to keep up with this detail on the next project) put approximately the following:

Color 1 – 2/ 3 yarns of 100gr Acrylic yarn in Beige

Color 2 – 1 – 1,5 yarns of 100gr Acrylic yarn in orange

Color 3 – 1 – 1 – 1,5 yarns of 100gr Acrylic yarn in green

Color 4 - 1 – 1,5 yarns of 100gr Acrylic yarn in white

· Hook : 4,0 mm

· Stitches

The only stitches you must know to start this project are:

o Slip Knot

o Chain

o Double Crochet

Here you can see videos and sites where you can learn the granny stitch although I have my own version at least at the beginning, which I have tried to show you above! How to Crochet the Granny Stripe Stitch - Sarah Maker, Granny Stitch Crochet - My Crochet Space, Bing Vídeos

As discussed in my previous post my way of executing the granny stitch is slightly different from what I found on the internet and thus have posted step by step of this stich which you can see here: CROCHET SUMMER TOP Using Granny Stitch

Mistakes as always have been made and because I believe that we can all learn from them here are my mistakes:

I am not good at frogging my work just hope/pray that no one will see the mistakes i have done, in this project it was the color combination.

Body Pannels – Here I decided that I did not want the panels at the front to be symmetric in the color scheme (anybody knows why I thought this was a good idea…) so when starting my second panel for the body I just continued the color scheme that ended in the other panel, the back is great but a bit weird at the front as its not symmetric!

Sleeves - This decision of the body panel color schemes led to another problem, the sleeves. Since the body panels ended with different colors the first sleeve I started matched the color scheme of the body, but when starting the second sleeve I made an executive decision that these should be symmetric and thus repeated the same color scheme as the first sleeve which is not matching with the body panel it is attached to but I think not many people will notice this.

Inspirations:

As always I must say I am not a designer but this time other than my previous granny stitch summer top and the Taylor Swift dress no more inspiration was needed.

I never tire of thanking all who have helped turn my vision into reality by teaching the necessary steps to get there and inspiring me!

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have, not being an expert, my help will only go so far!

Hope you enjoy this project.