I made sure not to think about how many popcorns it was going to take to make this gorgeous hoodie. Somewhere around 1200 or more! With it being a xmas present for my grandaughter, it actually turned out to be a joy to make. Especially when the sewing together was all done and I was putting on the finishing crab stitches. I used two strands together of a #4 yarn, and a 9mm hook, which gave me the correct gauge. That was encouraging! I also made a few other changes, like the shoulder shaping areas. I used hdc's instead of the dc's, because for some strange reason, when using the dc's it was very stretched out looking, the chain two spaces came out really big. Wish I could add my pictures. I love it!