I managed to find some time for this project today.

I have the body done.

I pinned the shoulders together and tried it on my wiggly toddler. It seems to fit!

I thought 7 stitches from shoulder towards the neck would be enough but after trying it on him I think 9 will be better. That leaves me 28 stitches from collar, across the back, to the other collar for a hood.

The hood is this deep purple and I think the colors are looking great.

I am going to do a very simple hood. Just 20 rows of hdc and then fold the top in half and sew it up.

The hood is definitely not deep enough as is, but I still need to put that purple border on so it should be ok.

For the front border, I simply started in the bottom corner and put a sc in each row all the way up amd back down. Then, I did 5 rows of hdc and finally, 2 rows of sc. I believe a button would fit through these holes if I ever decided to put some on but the plan is to just leave it open.

Also, a big thing I would change if I did this again: those color changes I carried up the side are NOT being hidden by the loose stitches. ??

Oh well. I am not frogging it. Moving on. The sleeves are next.

I am using green to make a row of sc around the arm holes. Then I will switch to white but I will try the back loop only trick again. It definitely makes a difference but I’m not 100% sure it is worth the effort yet.

I have 29 green stitches around the arm hole. I joined my white and did 29 sc into the back loops only. Then I joined that round with a slip stitch, ch 1, hdc around. From now on I will use a stitch marker to keep track of my rounds.

I did 7 hdc rounds of 29 stitches. Then I started decreasing. Row 8 had 1 decrease (28 stitches) and then I did 2 more rows. Row 11 had 1 decrease (27 stitches).

At the end of row 12 I did a sc and then a slip stitch and cut and tied off my yarn.

I then joined the green and did 3 rows. I put a decrease in the 3rd row (26 stitches).

Back to white to finish off these sleeves. I did 2 rows at 26 stitches and then a row with a decrease.

I put all my decreases on the underside or back of the sleeves but I don’t pay too much attention to the exact stitch so I am not sure if it was stitch 10 or 15 or whatever of the row.

I did 2 more rows at 25 stitches, then a row with a decrease in it, then a final row with 24 stitches. I finished off the sleeves by doing 2 rows of hdc alternating using the front and back posts. Sort of a false ribbed look.

It is a bit big on him, but I want him to be able to wear it for awhile. We can roll the sleeves up for a year.

If I was completely focused on crocheting I could whip up this sweater in a day or two. But I have little kids and we just listed our house for sale so I think it took me 2 weeks?

It was a nice change from blankets anyway.