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• Purchase Links for June Dog
• Wrong Side
• Using Fluffy Yarn
• Drawing Process
• Tester Photos
• June Dog Yardage Details

Wrong Side of June Dog

When we crochet a blanket or a square with a cool image on it, we’re mostly concerned with how the ‘right side’ looks.

But the ‘wrong side’ exists too! And it’s nice to know what to expect.

Each technique produces a different result on the back of these dog squares and I like to show them here.

Using Fluffy Yarn

I don’t normally use fluffy yarn for these large squares. I’ve just been using basic acrylic yarn for my dog squares this year.

I used cotton yarn for each of my cat squares and I did use fluffy yarn for one gnome square because I thought the Santa hat in December Gnome needed white fluff!

Obviously two and a half years was long enough for me to forget about the pain of using fluffy yarn because I decided to use normal white acrylic yarn along with a fluffy blue yarn for this month’s Poodle.

I don’t always block these squares because they’re going to be joined to other squares for a blanket at the end. But this month’s square NEEDED to be blocked! Wow!

My little helpers love it when there’s something they can do to help with my ‘work’. Melody and Remington got a bit distracted this time because of how fluffy the blue yarn was – they just wanted to snuggle it and rub it the whole time!

Drawing Process

I thought you might like to see some of my drawing process this month.

The internet is full of fakes and AI and cheats and I’d like to reassure you that I draw all my designs.

WinStitch

It’s no secret that I use WinStitch to create my charts. It’s software that was designed for cross stitch but the pro version has an export feature that will give you the interlocking stitch count. It also has a lot of handy drawing tools that Excel sheets don’t have which is why I prefer it.

I have read that other designers like to use Excel or StitchFiddle. Some designers even prefer to use paper and pencil! 

YouTube Tutorial

In June 2022 I recorded myself – live – showing some of my process. It’s not a true tutorial because there’s not enough detail. But it’s a starting point. And it’s more information than I had when I started. 

Step One: Grid Size

• All my dog squares start on a chart of 81 x 81.
• It’s not easy to change the grid size of a design once it’s been drawn for interlocking crochet.
• The outer edges will become lines that lock the layers together or will be deleted for the mosaic crochet option, so I try to keep that in mind when drawing.
• A larger grid means more pixels for a more detailed drawing. It also means more stitches to crochet. Worsted weight yarn is most common in Canada (where I live) but fingering weight yarn is more common in a LOT of other countries (where most of my customers live). The yarn used will affect the finished size of the project.

Remember, each square on the grid equals a stitch in your crochet project. I’ve created swatches in various yarn weights so I know that I can get 4 stitches (4 grid squares) to an inch when I use worsted weight yarn. I can then divide my chart width (81) by 4 to get the finished size in inches (81/4 = 20). Do the same for the height.

Step Two: Draw Rough Shapes

• I do not use AI.
• I have tried using the import feature on WinStitch but I’ve found it doesn’t work well for the way I’m using the program – it probably works better for cross stitching.
• I have a fancy touchscreen laptop with a pen but I gave up trying to learn how to use it and I just use the mouse.
• This is where my art classes come in handy 😉

Step Three: Interlocking Dots

• On WinStitch I created a ‘motif’ that is just my border lines and interlocking mesh dots. I paste these dots over my rough drawing and then as I edit the drawing I paste these dots again and again to make sure I’m following the grid rules.
• These dots are not necessary for the mosaic crochet technique, but all of my patterns start as interlocking crochet designs because the rules are more strict with that technique.

Step Four: Smoothing Out

• After ‘wrecking’ my rough draft with the interlocking mesh dots, my first task is to create a better rough draft.
• I go along the outer edges and draw lines to connect empty spots, close up gaps, etc.
• I also do this on the major shapes inside the drawing (like each leg, the ear, the body fluffy, etc).
• Sometimes I draw over a pink square and sometimes I erase sections. I paste my dot motif again to fix that and keep editing.

Step Five: Micro Adjustments

• This is the step that takes the longest and is often where I get stuck.
• It’s important to look closely at the details and at the big picture.
• Some adjustments are small (first & last two pics) and some are big & more noticeable (middle two pics).
• I like to save my progress (with a new file name) often in case I change my mind about a change and want to go back to the way it was.

I have about a dozen more progress pics saved but I decided this was enough of a visual here.

Constructive Feedback

This is the stage where I start asking my husband and some friends to tell me what they think. I want to make the major changes to the shapes or the composition at this stage BEFORE I’ve done the work for the mosaic crochet option.

If I make major changes to the mosaic option I have to make those EXACT SAME changes to the interlocking crochet option. I don’t want the dog’s tail to be a ball with one technique and a fluffy cloud with the other.

The whole point of offering my patterns in two techniques is that you can get the same design no matter which technique you use.

Step Six: Convert to Mosaic Crochet

• Once I think I’m happy with how the image looks I fill the background with pink (there can only be two colors).
• Then I save the file (very important) and save it AGAIN in a folder for my mosaic options.
• When adjusting to the mosaic crochet option I delete the extra border lines (their function is for the two layers of mesh to get locked together which is not necessary with mosaic).
• Then I use a handy ‘despeckle’ function in WinStitch.

The chart does not have to be drawn in pink and black, but it can only be two colors. My inital dotted ‘motif’ has black and pink and nothing squares. Those nothing squares HAVE to be changed to either black or pink. In my designs I draw with black and then leave pink to be whatever is leftover in the background.

Step Seven: More Adjustments

• Sometimes the ‘despeckle’ option doesn’t leave me with an image I like.
• If I add speckles back in, in certain spots on the mosaic option, that can help.
• If I change more than just the dots I have to also change the interlocking crochet file because I want the patterns to match.

This is another stage that can often take me a lot longer than it needs to. Sometimes I get really indecisive. Sometimes I get hung up on teeny, tiny details. Sometimes I just can’t make it look the way I want it to look because 81 pixels is actually pretty small for something to look realistic. Sometimes more than one option looks good and I have to just decide which way to keep it.

Step Eight: Finish

• Once the drawing process is finished I can move on to the next step which is turning it into a crochet pattern!

There’s quite a few steps involved in turning the drawing into a pattern but I won’t go over those steps today. 

Overlay mosaic crochet sample of June Dog by Margaret Maillet.

Interlocking crochet sample of June Dog by Maja Serec with optional border added (and her cat stealing the show!).

Interlocking crochet sample of June Dog by Maja Serec with optional border added (and her cat stealing the show!).

Interlocking crochet sample of June Dog by CynCityCrochet; showing right and wrong side.

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 June Dog. Black used as MC.