This Jack Russell Toy I knit up upon request of my Dad, who is giving it as a gift to a friend. The pattern, from Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches, was pretty straight forward and knit in three main sections: the two sides and the underside. The ears are knit and attached, as well as the collar, which I made with Knit Picks Gloss sock yarn.
There was also a little bit of embroidery going on for the face accents. Intarsia is used to create the spotted portions, which in general was fine until I had to sew in all of the ends. There were a considerable number of them, and sewing in ends is always annoying.
The seaming was the most challenging aspect of the stuffed toy’s construction. The undercarriage bottom body portion had little notches to match the leg portions of the side pieces. I seemed those first so that the rest of the underside would match up with the body. I’m not sure what happened, but the front is seemed slightly off so that the dog seems bow-legged in the front. The pattern should have described the seaming of the undercarriage body portion in more detail in order to communicate how to line it up. Otherwise, I fear that this slight twisting could result if you don’t already know to take more care in the seaming process.
From this angle, you can’t tell the dog has a weird twisty underside. It sort of looks like he’s just taking a bit of a walk down the street. There are pipe cleaners in the legs that allow the dog to stand up. There’s a pipe cleaner in the front two legs and one for the back pair.
This is my favorite view. It shows the contours of the body really well, and the delicacy of the pattern. In hindsight, I should have used mattress stitch exclusively, but the pattern gave the option of whip stitch. I should remember how, in general, I hate whip stitch for fine-detail seaming. You live, you learn, you make another stuffed toy.
Stash knit down 2011 total: 7
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