Sweater for chihuahua

My daughter's dog Benjamin came to stay with me over the weekend. No clothes with him, and we got the first proper frost of the winter. So I decided to make a sweater for him in a hurry - such a tiny dog needs something to keep him warm in the snow! I used wool yarn for warmth.

Benjamin hates fitting clothes on, as you can see in his expressions! But since I had no pattern and anyway every dog is a different size, I had to try it on him.

I used 3 different yarns, just to use up some of my stash.Knitting needles size 4.0 mm.

First I made 3 separate strips, each 10 stitches wide. The length is from the collar to the start of the tail. I crocheted them together from the right side. I picked stitches from the neck on to double pointed needles and cast on more to have 48 stitches to knit the collar.

The collar is 5 cm long (2 in).

Then I picked stitches from the start of the collar to make the bit for the dog's chest. You also need holes for the legs. For a female dog the bit under the tummy can be much longer!

Added short "stockings" for the front legs and the yellow border so that the grey and brown strips won't curl. Finally, small loops to fit around the hind legs so the back stays in place.

Lace in 1939 magazine

I found a women's magazine from the year 1939 among Mum's things. In many ways it felt sad to read it as it had been printed a short time before the war started also in Finland. So many hard years were ahead.

There was an article about different kinds on lace. I especially liked the one in the photo. The photo is not sharp, I tried many different ways to sharpen it but the original simply is what printing was at that time. Someone said it might be bobbin lace but it looks crochet to me. There aren't any kind of instructions or chart. Here my first try to make one like it:

To make one like in the photo you would need very thin crochet thread and a small hook. I used wool and a crochet hook 3.0 mm, so the result is a circle of  22 cm (8½ in).

It took a while to work out the order of the different parts! You could get the same result in many different ways, I'm sure.

 I didn't want the petals (or leaves) so tightly together. But by not adding the chain stitch between each double treble it would be tighter.

We'll see if I end up making something using this pattern design!

Collage of 2013 projects

I have a folder on my computer called Craftblog 2013. Here a compilation os some of projects.

Top row: Crochet scarf, Heart of fabric strips, Knit graffiti event
Middle row: Multi-coloured summer top, Crazy wool-technique, Stitch markers
Bottom row: Bling-bling socks, Child's legwarmers, Multi-coloured summer top

Top row: Freeform scarf,  Christmas tree bauble of Christmas fabrics, Cabled socks
Middle row: Corchet mini-bunny, Heavy cowl with buttons, Scarf in sprang technique (photos of the technique in my Finnish blog, sorry haven't translated yet)
Bottom row: Scarf in slipstitch crochet, Short socks, Mini-socks for Christmas tree

My favourite of these all was the colourful summer top. It seems to have been a favourite for others, too, because several people stopped me to ask about it!

But it is a new year now and my wool stash is bursting! Happy knitting / crochet / craft year to all!