Lizzy Raglan Dog Sweater

I hadn't knitted a sweater for my little friend Lizzy for a while. She's the cutest cutie and knitting for her is always a joy.

The yarn I used for the sweater is polywool (50% wool, 50% acrylic), which I overdyed. It was originally solid dusty rose color and I tried to add some interest making it multicolored. Unfortunately the colors pooled around the body, but I think the overall effect is nice and better than the factory color of the yarn.

The pattern is a raglan variation of  my old Lizzy Dog Sweater pattern, knit in the round. Now that I have measured it on Lizzy I see a few tweaks I could make to the pattern before I write it down, as I plan, so maybe there is a second raglan dog sweater coming this winter :)

Pattern: Lizzy Raglan Dog Sweater (personal pattern)
Yarn: Linate Multicolor, 70 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 3 days

Pumpkin Pie

I've made this pie  many times with grated apples and it is considered by my family to be the best apple pie ever. This time we tried it with grated pumpkin instead and it is (almost) equally delicious :) - I still think I prefer the apples, but that's me - hubby liked the pumpkin better.

Ingredients: 

• 1 kg grated pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup flour
• 10 g baking powder
• 100 g melted butter
• walnuts, cinnamon

 

Grate the pumpkin, add 1/2 cup of sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. Mix in a bowl the flour with the baking powder, the semolina and the remaining cup of sugar. Grease a baking dish with butter and spread a layer of 1/3 pumpkin, then a layer of 1/3 dry ingredients and 3-4 tbsp of melted butter. repeat the layering two more times. Place in a preheated oven and bake at 180 C for 40 min.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold with coffee, milk or tea. Enjoy!

This pie is very fruity and juicy and really super easy to make.

And on the knitting front - today I've been working on the design of a new little dog sweater with a simple Celtic knot. I think I got it figured out and I've already started knitting it. Stay tuned :)))

Purple Belle

And another small project - a "party" sweater for Lizzy. The inspiration for the sweater came from this gorgeous free pattern on Ravelry - Silver Belle, which is in my immediate plans, especially if I can find some suitable yarn in green - I like the green versions on Ravelry.

Pattern: Purple Belle (personal pattern)
Yarn: YarnArt Merino De Luxe, appr. 80 g and some Lurex yarn from my stash
Needle: 3.5 mm
Time to knit: two or three days

The hoodie is knit from side to side, with short rows, casting off and then casting on for the leg openings. I used provisional cast on and then 3 needle bind off for the belly closing. The stitches for the hood and the skirt are picked up additionally. The frills for the skirt are created by doubling the stitches on the fifth row and again doubling the stitches on the 9th row.

The sleeves are added to the body using the entrelac technique.

Knitting for small dogs is such fun!

Playing with Dolls

My knitting and sewing these last days felt very much like playing with dolls. Actually dolls were the first recipients of my knitting and sewing efforts, as I suppose is the case with 90% of the knitting population :) I was younger than five years of age when I pestered my mother to teach me to knit, so that I could make clothes for my dolls, the same as she was making for my new born baby sister.

So, as I've mentioned before on the blog, Gaby has a friend, who has a very small mini Yorkshire terrier. Two years ago I knitted her a couple of sweaters, but now she's a grown lady and was in need of new clothes. This is the first of the new sweaters - a simple 2x2 rib striped sweater, made with the same yarn to go with the hat for the girlfriend. For fun I used the random stripe generator to program the sequence of the stripes. The pattern I followed is basically my first dog sweater pattern, only I added four more stitches to account for the rib texture.

Pattern: Lizzy Dog Sweater
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids (coral and grey), Alize Superlana (white in two threads)
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: two days

And on a quite different note - last night I made the apple pie that is becoming the talk on Bulgarian culinary blogland. I had read all the comments and I thought I was prepared for what to expect and still I was smitten with the result. Yes, smitten, because in the course of the preparation I was gradually filling with doubts and at the end I was sure I had misunderstood the recipe - it all looked like too much dry ingredients and nothing to hold them together. So, to be on the safe side, I also made my ordinary dry fruit cake with honey:

After baking, the apple pie looked nothing much, but when we tasted it - oh, my! - it is worth every pray and song!!! Crusty and juicy, sweet and tasty, and so easy to make (especially if you ask your husband to grate the apples :)))

A quick summary of the recipe:
You need: 1 kg of apples, 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of wheat semolina, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tea spoon of cinnamon, 100 g of walnuts, 10 g of baking soda, 125 g of butter (there's also a vegetarian version with cocoa butter).
Grate the apples and mix them with the cinnamon and the walnuts. Mix the dry ingredients. Alternate apple and dry ingredient layers in a baking dish, adding two-three spoons of melted butter, finish with a layer of the dry ingredients and the remaining butter. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes. Spread powder sugar on top. Best enjoyed on the next day!

Lizzy Dog Sweater

My daughter's friend has a mini Yorkshire terrier, who finds autumn and winter temperatures very disagreeable. Lizzy (the dog) is a very small creature and knitting a sweater for such a tiny dog is a super easy and rewarding task. Here's the pattern I came up with - total length including rib 35 cm, spread width 30 cm:


Instructions:
Cut a 40 cm piece of the yarn to be used for mattress stitch later.
Cast on 54 st with DK yarn on 4 mm needle and work 15 rows of rib 2k 2p, starting on the WS with 2p and ending with 2p stitches. Row 16 (RS): Knit 18, work 18 stitches in pattern, knit 18. You can work the 2 stitch cable (cl1) traditionally or as suggested by Andee Steinman: K2tog, but do not drop sts from left needle; insert right needle between sts just worked together and k into first st again; drop both sts from left needle.
Row 18 (RS): k18, p2, cl1, p2, slip 3 st to cable needle in front of work, work 3 st, place the 3 st from the cable needle back on the left needle and turn. Work only this half of the sweater (27 st) for further 5 rows, ending with a WS. This creates the hole for the lead, hidden in the cable.
Row 24 (RS): work 27 stitches in pattern, then with a crochet hook slip stitch the thread along the edge of the half cable (thus avoiding cutting the yarn and weaving in ends) and continue to work the other 27 stitches. Work further 5 rows in pattern only over this half of the sweater.
Row 25 (WS): Work all 54 stitches in pattern.
Continue to work in pattern for further 8 rows.
Row 34 (RS): K8, k2tog and turn work.
Row 35 (WS): p2tog, p to the end. Work on the remaining 7 stitches for 10 more rows.
Row 46 (RS): k7, make 1, then with a crochet hook slip stitch the thread along the edge of the leg opening, ssk, work in pattern for 34 st, k2tog, turn work.
Row 35 of central part (WS): p2tog, work in pattern to the last two st, p2togtbl
Work further 10 rows over these central 32 st.
Row 46 (RS): m1, work in pattern 32 st, m1, then with a crochet hook slip stitch the thread along the edge of the leg opening, ssk, work in pattern for 8 st, turn work.
Row 35 of the left part (WS): work 7 st, p2togtbl.
Work further 10 rows over these 7 st.
Row 46 (RS): m1, work 7 st.
Row 47 (WS): connecting the three parts of the leg openings: work 8 st, m1, m1 from the first st of the central part, continue to the end of the central part, m1, m1 from the first st of the right part, work to the end.
Continue to work in pattern over all stitches for 14 more rows.
Row 62 (RS): Shape the opening for the hind legs: Decrease every other row 3 st 1 time, 2 st x 2 times, 1 st x 2 times, work 6 rows, then continue to decrease 1 st x 2 times, 2 st x 2 times and 3 st x 1 time.
Do not break the yarn! Using the 40 cm piece of yarn, connect the sides with mattress stitch, forming a tube-like sweater.
Row 86 (RS): central 18 st of pattern - starting the rib of the hind legs opening. If you are using a circular needle, check the magic loop method, or use double-point needles:
p2, k2, p2, place 3 st on cable holder in front of the knitwork, k2, p1, p1 from the cable holder, k2, p2, k2, p2. Pick up 29 st. round the left part of the opening, cont to pick up 29 st round the right side of the opening = a total of 18 + 29 + 29 = 76 st. Work 9 rows of p2 k2 rib and cast off (or 18 rows of p2 k2 rib, cast off, fold the rib in half and sew the end to the inside for double rib).
Pick up 24 st around the front leg openings and work 9 rows of p2 k2 rib and cast off (or 18 rows of p2 k2 rib, cast off, fold the rib in half and sew the end to the inside for double rib).