I am thrilled to report that I finally finished the chunky Landscapes hat. It started out as a stash-busting quick knit, and turned out to be not so quick (see post UFO Delivers Frog for the details). After some recalculation, I eventually ended up with a hat that fits my head, but omitted the earflaps that were called for in the pattern. I love the big stitches and the color changes in the yarn.

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Basic stockinette hat in Lion Brand Landscapes yarn in Country Sunset.

In more exciting news, I also designed my first item, a knitted dog collar. We do not dress up our dog as a rule, but the urge is there aroung the holidays to put Big Martha in something festive. This usually consists of nothing more than a themed bandana. But this year we will be taking the dog with us to visit family for the holidays, and I wanted to get something extra special. After searching a few local pet stores for something with a jingle bell or a Christmas tree I came up empty handed. And that’s when it occurred to me: I could knit something!

I immediately began thinking of places to get large jingle bells and what stash yarn I could use to knit up a collar or bandana. Fortunately, I had a couple of shades of green lying around, so all I had to do was get some inexpensive red yarn and some bells for the project.

May I present Martha’s Jingle Bell Collar:

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I simply knit a tube to fit twice the width of the collar. When I got to the middle and changed colors, I just slid a bell onto the yarn before I started knitting with it and then pulled it up when I got to the front. I knit until I reached then point of the metal leash loop and decided to make a button hole to slip it through. Then I knit another inch or so, bound off, and slid the tube onto an old collar.

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The dog comes right to me when she hears the bells a jinglin’. I think it helps put her in the holiday spirit too!