FO: Dotty Dog

I'm a bit behind on updating, and have a stack of finished projects to post. Trying to get more into the fun knitting lingo, the last of the Christmas break FO's was Dotty Dog, another lovely toy from Zoe Mellor's Knitted Toys. Can you tell I like this book?

Yarn: Tatamy Tweed in Purple, Lime, Burgundy, and Carnation Tweed with a bit of Sea Blue thrown in for good measure. The pattern calls for a main color with five contrasting colors used for the dots and belly stripes. I was trying to use up some odds and ends left over from monkeys and the crocodile, so I ended up working with just four other colors.

Needles: US3, of my Boye needlemaster kit.

It seems that while I'm a literal pattern reader - I usually do exactly what patterns tell me to do - directions like "placing 'dots' randomly" or to work the gusset in stripes "using the 'dot' colours randomly" do not compute. I don't do random easily. So I had to go and make myself a pattern in MS Paint for the gusset, in an attempt to organize the randomness. It worked, and my brain was happy. As to the dots, I skipped knitting them in, not wanting to deal with a ton of bobbins and/or intarsia. So I knit the upper body with the main color and sewed the dots on after. That let me once again sort of organize the randomness and as long as I remembered to sew loosely, everything turned out very well.

The dog was a huge hit with my niece, who snuggled up to it right away. This is one of the few pictures I got of the dog's belly, right before my niece started munching on a front paw. =)


Coming soon, some finished fingerless gloves, a hat in progress, and the products of some fiber therapy this weekend: a sewing machine cover and a DPN holder. Sew delightful!