Adult Chullo Hat

Made with Plymouth Alpaca Dk in Black and grey (actually, the grey is another dk alpaca brand that I cannot recall right now, but it was way too fuzzy)

Size 5 dpns and circs

Gauge: 6 1/2 stitches per inch

Ear flaps: Cast on 8 stitches, purl 1st row, kfb of 1st and last row on each knit row until 28 stitches then make 8 more rows in stockinette (4 k and 4 p rows)

Adding the rest of the hat: Joining to make 1st round: at the end of 2nd ear flap cast on 46 new stitches and knit on other ear flap then cast on 26 more stitches for 128 stitches total.

I used a pattern by jessica tromp for the color work, but I can’t find the chart I used, seing as how I printed it up probably 2 years ago.

Knit in the round until hat is 5.5 inches long then begin decreases as follows: divide hat into 4 equal sections and k2tog at beginning and end of each section until 8 stitches remain.

I felt the hat was a teensy bit big, so I felted it the slightest bit in the sink and blocked it.

I think the black and grey combo look really good on him, nothing ostentatious or overly colorful, just a nice traditional pattern in a very warm material.  He even took it out at a party to show off to everyone, because he really thought it was awesome.

This is not the last knit of the year, there is an ugly dog sweater too, I need to send it down to my mom who has “offered my services” to her friends with small dogs.  i thought she wanted me to make them in the 3 days she was here, which is insane, but fortunately she didn’t expect that, because I was still working on the hat above.

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Christmas Knitting Revisited

I did not do a lot of Christmas knitting because I was without knitting inspiration, perhaps.  My friend Deandria called andrequested a manly purple hot water bottle cozy for her husband.  Presented with a challenge (manly purple? manly hot water bottle cozy? really? oh, you want it in bamboo silk too? really?) I set forth.  I even went to a local yarn shop in Lodi instead of driving to Elk Grove to buy yarn, which again demonstrated why I don’t go to local yarn shops and why my friend Kim and I don’t go out together (bad things always happen when we go out together).  I bought some very nice silk and wool blend yarn, 2 hanks, and the shop wouldn’t wind them into cakes for me.  They said it was their policy to not wind yarn when they are having a sale.  So I asked if I could use their ball winder myself, which was met with a resounding “No”.  The thing is, though, that Kim and I were the ONLY PEOPLE in the shop.  There were 2 ladies working,2 of us, 2 hanks of yarn, and a continued refusal to wind them.

Having my yarn and someone to help me untangle it and wind it into a ball I cast on for a hot water bottle cozy (pattern here) for Manly purple Matt.  I added a few more stitches to both sides so I could do a fancier cable and it turned out fabulously.

Deandria and Matt got the hot water bottle cozy and her hat pins in the mail yesterday and thought the cozy was very nice.  She sent me a magnetized chart keeper, which is awesome because now I can quit misusing my post-its keeping track of and getting lost in my charts.  I’ll admit, this cable has a mistake but I didn’t want to pull out rows and rows of cabling to fix 1 part where the center cable crossed over instead of under.  Argh.

The only other thing I made for Christmas was an alpaca chullo hat for the gentleman I’m seeing now.  He came over on his way to Tahoe with a stinky maching made hat that was a childs large and too small for him.  I’ll publish that in my next post, since I wrote a pattern for it.

Warning! Adorable Pictures Ahead!

I have pictures of the adorable little girl who got Helena and the braided cardigan that I made.  The pictures are gorgeous, This summer she wants me to make a matching braided cardigan for her big sister.

Helena

Helena

Isn’t she the most adorable little sweater model ever? I did make the sweater big, as her mom requested, so she could wear it for another year.

Thank you, luvsknitting, for sharing your double cable darby sweater, which we can all check out here.  Doesn’t the little pup (Mapache is his name) look adorable.  I mean, he’s a total cutie anyway, but he’s SO cute!

5 lb dog sweater pattern

Per a request, a sweater to accomodate a 5lb dog (and what I imagine the mass of a 5lb dog looks like)

size 8 needles, worsted weight yarn

gauge: 4 stitches to the inch

Cast on 40, knit in stockinette for 4 inches (for a turtleneck) or 2″ for a crewneck.

Begin increasing to accomodate the chest by knitting the front and back of the 3rd stitch and the 3rd to last stitch 10 times

Legs: knit 7 stitches, cast off 8 stitches, knit 30 stitches, cast off 8 stitches, knit 7 stitches

Knit 7, cast on 8, knit 30, cast on 8, knit 7 stitches

Continue in stockinette until the body is of a length you want (I’m guessing about 6 or 7 inches from the arm-holes) Knit 1 ” of ribbing

Pick up the sleeves and crochet or knit in 1×1 ribbing

Hooray! There you go, Merry Christmas and all that.

If you have a 5lb chihuahua or other dog and knit this pattern, please let me know (nicely) what needs improvement.  If you happen to take a pic of your dog in the sweater, even better, share a picture with me!  I will be super happy!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Christmas Chihuahua Sweater

Merry Christmas

Someone recently asked for a chihuahua sweater for a male dog.  As requested, here it is.  It’s cut up away from the belly on the bottom so that the boys can do their business without soiling the hem of the sweater.

I will not be including instructions for the color work, only because I’ve had enough pattern writing today.

oh yeah, all the important stuff:

Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Red Sprinkle (I’m going to guess 60 yards or 1/3 of a skein), size 6 double pointed needles, needle to sew in ends, smooth waste yarn (for 2nd version, a small amount of contrasting yarn)

gauge: about 5 stitches to the inch

I’m writing the same pattern twice and leaving out the color work.  The first version is row by row.  If you don’t need all that, the short and simple version is at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional pattern writer.  I just have a small dog who is cold.  Please don’t be rude about correcting my work or asking me to rewrite it for your 100lb dog (no offense to 100lb dogs, but I don’t buy that much yarn at a time).

The long version:

Cast on 40 stitches, distribute over 3 needles

Knit 1×1  ribbing for 3 ”

Knit 2, kfb, k34, kfb, k2 (now you have 42 stitches on the needles)

knit 3, kfb, k34, kfb, k3

knit 4, kfb, k34, kfb, k4

knit 5, kfb, k34, kfb, k5

knit 6, kfb, k34, kfb, k6

knit 7, kfb, k34, kfb, k7

knit 8, kfb, k34, kfb, k8

knit 9, kfb, k34, kfb, k9

knit 10, kfb, k34, kfb, k10

knit 11, kfb, k34, kfb, k11

knit 12, kfb, k34, kfb, k12 (62 stitches total)

Arm holes

on next row knit 7, knit 7 on waste yarn, knit around to last 14 stitches, knit 7 on waste yarn, knit 7 with regular yarn.

Knit in stockinette (knit around) until body is 3″ long from arm holes

cast off last 10 stitches of next row

cast of 1st 10 stitches of the new row, k1, k2 tog, knit 36, k2 tog, k1

purl next row (sweater is now being worked flat)

knit 1, k2 tog, k34, k2tog, k1

purl next row

k1, k2tog, k32, k2tog, k1

purl

k1, k2tog, k30, k2tog, k1

purl

k1, k2tog, k28, k2tog, k1

purl

k1, k2tog, k26, k2tog, k1

purl

k1, k2tog, k24, k2tog, k1, don’t purl back! Pick up 20 stitches evenly around the cast off edge so you have 48 stitches.

do k1p1 ribbing for 1 inch and cast off.

Sleeves; remove the waste yarn and pick up the stitches.  In between the 2 rows grab a loop and twist it so that you don’t have a gap in the sleeves.  Do 1×1 ribbing around for 1 inch.

Sew in your ends and admire your work.

The short version, without all the row-by-row stuff.

cast on 40 sts, divide onto needles as follows, 10 on 1st needle, 20 on 2nd needles, 10 on 3rd needle. Join and knit in k1p1 ribbing for 3″ for turtleneck or 1.5 inches for crew neck, on last row place marker after 3rd stitch and before last 3 stitches.

Increasing for the body

Knit first 2 stitches, knit front and back of stitch before marker, knit around, knit front and back of stitch right after the last marker (you will have 42 stitches now).  repeat 10 more times for 62 stitches.

Leg holes and body

On next row, knit 7 sts with red, knit 7 stitches with waste yarn (that should take you to the stitch marker), knit around to the next stitch marker, knit 7 in waste yarn and then 7 in red.  Knit until body measures 3″ long from armholes.  On next row knit around and cast off last 10 stitches and 1st 10 stitches of next row.  Finish that row by knitting 1, k2tog, knit across to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1.  Purl the next row.  Continue decreasing by knitting 1, k2tog at the beginning and k2tog, k1 at the end and purling back (so you have stockinette) 7 times total.  at the end of the last knit row, continue by picking up 20 stitches around the body and knit 1″ of 1×1 ribbing.

Finishing up (sleeves)

Pull out the waste yarn and pick up 14 stitches plus 2 extra loops on each side so you don’t get a big gap. k1p1 ribbing for 1″

Sew in all ends and admire your work.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.