I’ve avoided making any ‘small white fluffy dog’ designs to date, but now I have a fluffy white dog of my own I just had to give it a go and make an amigurumi version of my sweet Maggie, who’s (mostly) a mix of miniature poodle, maltese and bichon frise.

One of the problems with designing patterns for long-haired dogs is that they can look quite different depending on how their fur is clipped – for show, for practicality, or something in between. And lots of the small dogs I know are mixed breeds, so they may not look exactly like a specific breed archetype anyway… It’s a challenge to make a pattern that will please people, so I thought starting with my own pup as the model will at least make me happy 😉

To make my ami-Maggie, I started with the closest parts from several of my existing AmiDogs designs, and then made a few tweaks to get a closer match to my little maltipoochon. I used mainly off-white yarn, with light brown for the ears, as Maggie is a little apricot-coloured in places, and not bright white anywhere! And here’s the result:

Aww! I debated brushing ami-Maggie all over to give her a fluffier look, but in the end I decided that the fluffy ears were enough to make her mini-me look like her. Do you agree? (I might still brush the top of her head a bit too…)

You’ve probably guessed what’s coming next, huh? I adore both my babies, and I couldn’t just make an ami-Maggie without making an ami-Maui to complete the set!

To make my ami-Maui, I used my AmiCats Tabby pattern, with only basic modifications to make Maui’s white chin and unstriped tail.

Maui doesn’t have very defined tabby stripes, so I chose two similar heathered shades of taupe/brown (Lion Brand Heartland in Mammoth Cave and Sequioa) to give an impression of mottled tabby colours without modifying the pattern, and I think that was pretty effective.

My amigurumi versions of my babies aren’t perfect matches for their real-life counterparts, but even at a glance there’s no doubt who they represent, and I just love them!

Crochet your own Cats & Dogs!

If you’re looking for cat or dog crochet patterns, look no further than my AmiCats and AmiDogs collections. With 8 cat and 24 dog designs, I have a wide selection for you to choose from:

So many options! And you can mix and match parts from different patterns to make a closer match to a specific dog or cat.

I know I still have some gaps in my design collection though – do you have a little fluffy dog that you’d like to recreate in crochet? Let me know! Leave me a comment below with the breed of your dog and what you think of my ami-Maggie, and/or email me (june@planetjune.com) with a pic of your baby! If there’s enough interest, I may be inspired to create some more AmiDogs patterns in future…

For my new Relaxing Crafts series, I decided to pick up a pile of random craft kits that one of my neighbours was selling on Facebook and see if there was anything interesting for me to try…

It was quite a haul for a few dollars! There are quite a few things I’d like to experiment with in here, and I’ll pass the rest onto someone else who has kids who can use them – nothing will go to waste.

Hiding out in the bottom right corner of the above pic, I found a kit I was intrigued to start first: a small diamond painting kit.

Diamond Painting

The craft of ‘diamond painting’ – sticking flat-backed plastic ‘gems’ onto an adhesive colour-coded surface to form a pattern – seems to have sprung up from nowhere over the past few years. Have you heard of it before?

A diamond painting kit comes with an adhesive backing (this one is cardboard, but most are canvas), preprinted with the design. You fill in each space with a plastic ‘diamond’. Depending on the kit, the diamonds can be square or round – in this kit, mine were round.

There’s an individual bag for each colour of diamond. With only a few colours in this design, I found it most fun to pour a few colours into the tray at once, and then I got to play a minigame every time: to look for a piece that was a) the right colour and b) the right way up.

Each diamond has a domed front and a flat back. You pick up a diamond by loading the nib of the special pen with a little pink wax, then pressing it gently to the domed side of the diamond, so the diamond sticks to the wax:

Then you press the flat side of the diamond down to the picture. The adhesive grabs the diamond and keeps it in place. (The wax stays inside the nib of the pen, ready to grab the next diamond.)

It’s very satisfying to place all the tiny diamonds into neat rows and watch the picture emerge. It’s faster than cross stitch, much easier than paint-by-numbers(!), and once each piece is placed it stays there, so you don’t have to worry about knocking them out of place before you complete the design.

As you work, you peel back the protective plastic film from the painting a bit at a time, so the rest of the picture stays sticky and doesn’t attract dust or lint before you’re ready to apply the diamonds to it.

And, after a little time, the canvas is filled and the finished picture emerges!

Relaxing Craft Verdict

This kit was just a dollar store special and I don’t love the design, but as a test of the craft it served its purpose admirably: I call diamond painting a win on the relaxing front! Big thumbs up from me.

I’m looking at diamond painting kits now – there are lots with really nice looking designs, and I think I’ll be picking one up. Here are my top choices at the moment:

Clockwise from top left: Miniature Magic, Forest Babe, and Graceful Swimmer kits from Diamond Dotz.

I’m leaning towards the turtle – I think the diamonds may make it look like it’s swimming in a sparkling sea. What do you think?

Have you ever tried diamond painting? Are you tempted to try now? Let me know in the comments below!