Toasty Crocheted Jacket Gets Extensive Testing

I ended up adding a drawstring to the hood.

Just in time for a record cold front, this yarn stash buster is holding up pretty well (though in unexpected ways) under rigorous kid testing.
'Bob' requested a new crocheted sweater and rifled through my yarn stash to be helpful. He liked the bright twists of color in the Lion Brand Landscapes. The challenge: only 3 skeins and no time to track down more. I like its wool content and it's a fun crochet yarn.

So, to make the most of the first yarn, I did strips of Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS) because it gets the most mileage out of the yarn. 

It's true! Eva Owsian once posted a comparison of yarn used for a knitted stockinette swatch, TSS swatch, and single crochet stitch swatch. (Angela refers to it here.)
Would you believe that with the same amount of yarn, the TSS swatch was bigger than the knitted one?

Yeah! Totally.

Then, based on the Marco Jacket (my first TSS strips experiment), I found yarns that coordinated with the Landscapes colors. Lion Brand Suede colors were great but I had to add strands of a medium-weight yarn to beef up the yarn thickness so that it matches Landscapes. Naturallycaron Country adds a nice sheen, and some Brown Sheep wool looked great.
The yarn is actually holding up better than the blocked finished shape. As time goes by, the bottom hem is hiking up a bit, and the shoulder seam is growing--relaxing and creeping down his arm as if it's not his size. It's not supposed to! 

I was counting on the inelasticity of the TSS return rows to support the weight of the sleeves without stretching! In retrospect, I didn't account for the air (the extra space around each stitch) that gets built into chenille yarn when it's crocheted. And get this: it's magnified when chenille is held together with another yarn strand, like I did.

But I'm enjoying seeing these rich textures and more mature colors on him, rather than the usual primary colors. So for my Ravelry project page I've named it "Velvet Motley, A Midwinter Coat."