December Dog
This brave Saint Bernard is our twelfth dog square in the “2024: A Year of Dogs” series. This is my husband’s favorite in this series.
Crochet Colorwork
As with all the dog squares in this series, December Dog can be done using your choice of colorwork technique: Interlocking crochet or overlay mosaic crochet.
You’ll receive the fully written pattern and charts for both techniques.
Monthly Series
The 2024: A Year of Dogs series is my 4th “Year of…” set. Each month I publish another large square that fits in the year’s theme.
This series is now complete. You can pick and choose your favorite dog squares or grab the eBook to save 40%!
The eBook listings contain all 12 dog squares for both techniques as well as an all-in-one blanket pattern for each technique. The blanket is designed to allow you to crochet without needing to join squares at the end. It’s not available separately; it’s only found in the eBook.
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.
Joining Squares
With interlocking crochet, it’s relatively easy to join the squares. With overlay mosaic crochet you have to deal with the cut ends first.
Head back to this section on the Year of Dogs Landing Page to read more.
Pictures of the Wrong Side
Depending on which technique you use, this is what the back of your project will look like.
With interlocking crochet you get an inverse, almost-right image.
With mosaic crochet you’ll get stripes but because of how the stitches lay you can see an illusion of what was on the front.
There are also special mosaic crochet techniques that can create a reversible image or avoid the cut ends but I don’t have tutorials or experience with those yet.
Tester’s Photos
This year’s series of somewhat-realistic looking dogs tends to look better with a dark color as the Main Color. It creates the drawing, the eyes, the shadows.
Thank you to my testing team for 2024: A Year of Dogs: Anonymous Squirrel, CrochetCarob, CynCityCrochet, Eva, Linda Bakker, Maja Serec, Margaret Maillet, and ScorpiosHook.
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.
Important Details for December Dog
As with all my designs, each dog square 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) (dark lines) – 250 yards plus 75 for optional border
- Accent color (AC) (background) – 240 yards
My interlocking crochet sample of December Dog. Black used as MC.
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 (585 – 835 yards)
- Main color (dark lines) – 260 yards
- Contrasting color (background) – 325 yards
- Optional envelope border – 250 yards
My overlay mosaic crochet sample of December Dog. Black used as MC.
