Knitted Puppy

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I had knitted toys or ornaments for four siblings, and just one birthday remained. This was for a girl soon to turn nine years old. She paged through all my patterns, before deciding she would like the one labelled, simply, 'puppy' in the Jean Greenhowe Knitted Animals book.

I didn't have any yarn of the colour shown in the book, and couldn't find any at the local shops. Eventually I found quite a nice tan/brown, and my friend said that would be fine.

I didn't start knitting it until a couple of weeks before her birthday. The body and front legs are all once piece; a bit fiddly, but not too time-consuming. The head wasn't then too difficult, either. My heart always sinks when I see instructions that begin, 'increase in every stitch' right after casting on. I knit quite tightly, and never like increasing in every stitch. However, there weren't too many stitches, and it wasn't too painful.

When I got to the collar piece (in red) I was mystified by the instructions. But I trust Jean Greenhowe, so kept knitting.. and then, when sewing it together, realised that it's not just a collar but a whole piece of neck, so to speak, all red. It would have been clearer if the top and bottom parts were brown, I think.

I didn't see how it was going to go together until finally, a day before the birthday, I stuffed and sewed the whole thing up. It took nearly two hours to complete it; I don't like this stage at all, so usually leave it to the end. Just two double lengths of yarn were supposed to hold the head and collar in place, leaving the head free to move. The pattern did say to sew it fully if given to a young child, but my friend isn't going to try and eat it.. however I did put some more stitches in, to make it more secure.

The result was, I think, quite pleasing:


There were accessories given too, a bowl and a bone. Embroidering 'DOG' seemed a bit pointless but I hadn't discussed this with my friend, so I thought I'd better follow the picture. I didn't put any cardboard in the base of the bowl; I thought it would make it more child-friendly as it would be washable, but it meant it wasn't so solid despite two layers of knitting. The bone was very quick and easy to make.


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