January Dog
I am so excited to start 2024’s “Year of…” series of large squares! January Dog features daschunds and was inspired by my old slippers.
Crochet Colorwork
Colorwork patterns can often be intimidating. Interlocking crochet and overlay mosaic crochet are two different techniques that can produce an image in your crochet project with relative ease.
You’ll receive the fully written pattern and charts for both colorwork techniques.
If you’re new to these techniques, start with my tutorials. January is a great time to try something new!!
Monthly Series
I’ve designed this dog square with the full year of dog squares in mind. However, you don’t need all 12 dog squares to enjoy January Dog.
Each month’s design is available individually or in the eBook. The eBook is a one-time purchase that will get updated every month throughout the year with the next dog square.
You will save 40% with the purchase of the eBook versus buying each month’s square individually.
EBook Discount
Save 20% (expired) on the 2024: A Year of Dogs eBook until Jan 24, 2024. This discount gets added on top of the 40% you’ll be saving by purchasing the eBook versus each individual dog square. No code needed, valid on Ravelry & Etsy.
January Trial
If you’re not ready to commit to the full eBook of all 12 dog squares, why not just try January Dog first?
If you later decide you DO want the eBook, the cost of January Dog will be deducted from your purchase of the eBook!
Available on Ravelry only, no code needed, cannot be combined with other offers.
Important Details for January Dog
Each design comes with the fully written pattern and charts for two colorwork techniques: interlocking crochet and overlay mosaic crochet.
Click here to go to my tutorials for these crochet techniques.
Interlocking Crochet
Each dog square has a chart size of 81 x 81. This means they begin with 40 windows in the foundation row and will finish to about 20″ square.
Interlocking crochet / LFM crochet file includes:
- line-by-line written pattern (view key)
- instructions on reading a chart (view)
- a one-page chart (good for viewing on a screen)
- a four-page chart (better for printing)
Interlocking Crochet Details
- Chart is 81 x 81
- Gauge: 8 (dc, ch) x 8 rows = 4”
- 20″ x 20″ / 51cm x 51cm
- 4.5 mm hook (US7)
- Worsted weight yarn (490 – 565 yards total)
- Main color (MC) (dog) – 250 yards plus 75 for optional border
- Accent color (AC) (background) – 240 yards
My interlocking crochet sample of January Dog.
Overlay Mosaic Crochet
The mosaic crochet version of each dog square uses an adjusted chart. This means I’ve removed the interlocking mesh dots and unneccessary border lines. Read more about the differences at https://ashleeslint.com/tutorials/interlocking-and-mosaic-crochet/.
Click here to learn more about the options for dealing with the cut ends at the end of each row when doing overlay mosaic crochet.
Overlay Mosaic Crochet file includes:
- line-by-line written pattern (view key)
- instructions for optional envelope border (view)
- instructions on reading a chart (view)
- a one-page chart marked with X’s (good for viewing on a screen)
- a four-page chart marked with X’s (better for printing)
Bottom-Up Mosaic Crochet Details
- Chart is 77 x 77
- Gauge: 14 sc blo stitches x 15 rows = 4”
- 22″ x 20″ / 56cm x 52cm
- 5 mm hook (H-8)
- Worsted weight yarn (535 – 785 yards)
- Main color (dog) – 235 yards
- Contrasting color (background) – 300 yards
- Optional envelope border – 250 yards
My mosaic crochet sample of January Dog.
Are you crocheting one of my designs? I’d love to see it. Tag me on social media or join one of my groups!
The first Facebook icon takes you to my public page, the second Facebook icon goes to my private group.
Cutting Your Yarn with Overlay Mosaic Crochet Squares
One of the biggest deterrents to trying overlay mosaic crochet is the idea that we need to cut the yarn at the end of every row.
I promise it’s not as scary as it sounds!
It is important to have a plan before you begin though.
Will you be adding an envelope border at the end to hide the cut ends? Then they don’t need to be too long. There are even multiple options on how to use envelope borders! Check out these photos where I’ve mixed envelope borders with panels between squares to save on yarn.
Would you rather do some twisting and make the cut ends a feature of your blanket or scarf? Then you’ll need to make sure they’re left long.
If you plan on weaving them in maybe you would also like to crochet over them as you go?
Or maybe you’d rather skip having cut ends altogether? You can use Tunisian mosaic crochet and not have to cut your yarn at all!
Another option is to crochet the squares together as you make them – create your foundation row as wide as three squares, for example, and crochet row 1 of all three squares, one after another, without cutting between them.
You’ll even be able to find tutorials that change the way the back of your project looks. Personally, I’m not a fan of these options because of the way it affects the final image but I do love knowing all the options available!
Joining Squares
If you do plan on using January Dog in a blanket with other large squares then you’ll need to have a plan for joining the squares.
Head back to this section on the Year of Dogs Landing Page to read more.
Wrong Side of January Dog
The ‘right side’ with the design is the main point of these squares, but it’s often interesting to see what the back, or ‘wrong side’, will look like too!
Interlocking crochet creates an almost opposite image while overlay mosaic crochet just creates stripes. You can often see a faint illusion of the front.
Wrong sides of both the mosaic and interlocking crochet samples of January Dog.
Interlocking crochet sample of January Dog by CynCityCrochet. Dark blue used as Main Color (MC).
Wrong side of CynCityCrochet’s interlocking crochet sample of January Dog.
January Dog Testers
The 2024: A Year of Dogs series was tested by Anonymous Squirrel, CrochetCarob, CynCityCrochet, Eva, Linda Bakker, Maja Serec, Margaret Maillet, and ScorpiosHook.
I value their feedback tremendously! Thank you!
Want more photos?
Check out all the Ravelry projects (by testers and others) linked to January Dog at https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/january-dog/people.
Interlocking crochet sample of January Dog by an Anonymous Squirrel.
Overlay mosaic crochet sample of January Dog by CrochetCarob.
Interlocking crochet sample of January Dog by ScorpiosHook.
Overlay mosaic crochet sample of January Dog by Linda Bakker.