Birthday Dogs

I visit our local Car Boot Fair almost every week, as well as numerous trips per month to the cities huge range of charity shops.  I find (and buy) a lot of second-hand or left-over yarn, but most of it is just normal Double Knit or Worsted.  While great for crocheting with, it typically lacks much furry texture, which means that certain fluffy or long furred animals are hard to make look 'right' in amigurumi form.  I'm always on the look-out for fluffier yarns that aren't so fluffy I wouldn't be able to see the stitches as I crocheted them (a common problem with most mohair-type or eyelash yarn).  When I finally stumbled across a ball of grey, slightly fuzzy yarn at our local Car Boot Fair I was very pleased indeed.


A very good friend of mine has two beautiful, sweet-natured rescue dogs that I love, and I knew straight away that the yarn I had found would be perfect to make an amigurumi version of one of them - a dark grey/black Shepherd mix.  Luckily I already had some lovely light golden wool that would be perfect for the other dog, a Podengo cross with one upright and one floppy ear.

As her birthday was coming up, making amigurumi's of her two beloved dogs seemed like the perfect present, especially since she has admired my crocheted toys for ages now.

These are the results. They stand about 8cm tall.

 

 

The eyes are 6mm safety eyes, and I used a short length of chain stitch to make the eyebrows to give the faces more expression.

The collar is a simple strip of red felt sewn in situ into a ring, and the ID tag is made by punching a hole in a tiny 5mm silver sequin and threading a thin wire jump ring through it.  Then just thread the jump ring over the collar and close carefully using jewellery-making pliers.


Presentation is Everything

I also made a custom gift box for them using some K&Co patterned card, a Kraft recycled card tag (which I stamped the sentiment onto using black StazOn ink) and some green crochet cotton:

Did my friend like them?  No, she loved them!  I've never seen her so stunned and happy.  I think by the time the evening was done everyone she knew had been sent a picture of the amigurumi dogs.

All of which makes me very happy - I love making things for people. :)