Woof! Woof!

Everyone seems to love my "Pocket Buddies" and I got to add a new one to the line up.  I had a request  for a Dalmatian!  He's a bit bigger than the bunnies and bears, but could be made smaller, quite easily.  I did a LOT of searching for a pattern.  Dalmatians aren't really what I consider a "cute and cuddly" puppy, and I didn't know if the boy wanted a "sit on the shelf" puppy or a "stuff in your pocket" buddy.  At first, it was to be in a standing pose, instead of the bunny pose.  So, the easiest way to do that is with pipe cleaners.  I asked the client, and she said to no to the pipe cleaners, as her boy is autistic and wants this as a cuddly buddy.  So I stuffed the bottom of the feet pretty densely.

I used the Pointer pattern from "Knit Your Own Dog" volume 2. My library had this book, but not the first book, which has a Dalmatian pattern in it.  They appear to be very similar though.  My only complaint is that if you're knitting the pointer, following the colour scheme/pattern, you'll know where to place the ears and eyes by the pictures.  I did random spots, so when it came time to place the ears, and particularly the eyes, it was tricky--where the eyes should have gone there were already black spots.  So I used black beads, but they still didn't stand out too much.

I used two strands of "Georga" baby yarn from Wal-Mart.  The gauge for this yarn is a ridiculous 22st/4" on 4mm needles.  I used TWO strands, and 3.5mm needles.  It was tight in the paws, but in the rest of the body, where I was working in the black spots (Astra), it was much looser.

I'm not actually a fan of the pattern writing in these books.  Many instructions took me a couple read throughs to figure out.  I made the legs and tail in the round so there's no sewing.  I had some weird bunching between his hind legs, so I did a sort of mattress stitch to narrow the stomach panel through there.  The neck is a little thick--they mention this in the book.  I think it's so the head isn't floppy.  There isn't as much definition to the head as I'd like, but some of that is due to using two strands of yarn.  The collar is using the reflective yarn, with one of my tags :)

Yarn In:   9483gr
Yarn Out: 73gr + 6858gr = 6931gr
Balance: 2552gr  MORE brought IN then out
Costs:  $486.12/341 days = $1.43/days