I crocheted a different style of beanie. I was following a pattern for a cloche, but it was too short and too small, so I customized it to be another beanie that fits my head.
I decided to turn my piles of granny squares into vests. I made the first one from a picture I saw on the Internet, but I somehow spaced out on the number of rows I needed and made it way too wide. It's more of a shawl with arm holes now.
For the second vest, I used up the squares to lengthen it. It fits much better.
I tried to follow a pattern for a dog coat that was online but struggled to comprehend the directions and ended up just making it my way. Xander immediately tried to chew through it to get out of it, so I'll have to wait until he is more mature and has all of his adult teeth before letting him wear it unsupervised.
This was my first crocheted dog coat. I normally make them out of quilting fabric and batting with a third layer of flannel on the inside. I have to choose bright neon colors so that I can find the dogs when they wander off into the woods.
Xander's first fabric coat had a fake sheepskin fabric on the inside so that I could skip using batting and flannel. He loves to rip stuffing out of stuffed animals, and I didn't want him ripping the batting out of his new coat. Unfortunately, he figured out that the other dogs have stuffing in their coats, so he's been undressing the other dogs and shredding their coats. His baby teeth are razor sharp so all it takes it one solid bite and whatever he bit into is destroyed. So, I have to train him to leave the coats alone before I can make replacements.
I also tried my hand at making slippers. I followed a YouTube video and was disappointed that the sides of the slippers were so low. The slippers were more like toe warmers, so I added my own custom design to get a little more warmth and turn them into booties. They can be worn three different ways.
I used "baby Bee" soft & snuggly Splish-Splash yarn from Hobby Lobby and it was a delight to work with. So far, the majority of my projects have been with acrylic yarn. I love how soft this yarn is and that the hook slides easily through the loops. This yarn is designed more like a pipe cleaner, so there are no smaller twined strands to get caught up on. Of course, the first night I wore these slippers to bed, the puppy got under the covers and tried to shred them right off my feet. I have to keep reminding myself that the pleasure is in the process and not the finished product.
