Another Christmas gift is off the list. This one is for my parents’ pooch. Now, before you decide that I am completely mental for knitting for a dog please keep in mind the following:
1. I hate malls at Christmas, and I hate having to buy mass-produced items that were most likely made by an underpaid and overworked employee of a giant multinational company that then has to ship the item to North America (or wherever) at the expense of the environment. By the time you add human suffering and the carbon footprint to the cost that $5 doggie toy doesn’t really feel like a good deal.
2. I have ends in my stash that I always think I will find a use for. This time I did.
3. Pets are family. They deserve the same love I give any actual family member.
4. This took me a grand total of about a day and a half.
So here is my Braided Ball a.k.a Maggie’s Chew toy:
It's made with Knit Picks swish ends
I started by knitting three pieces at once. I thought that it would be faster than knitting each separately.
I decided in the long run that knitting each separately was faster. Each strip is 18 stitches wide and 68 rows long and took a about 45 minutes when you include coffee breaks and chatting and other distractions
Then I started sewing it together. This first attempt is wrong. The brown strips are fine, but the blue is not. This caused much cursing on my part and that’s probably best left to your imagination as I really try not to have that kind of blog.
My second attempt was much better. I placed both blue strips in the right place before sewing the ends closed. The denseness of the ball will hold them in place for you.
At this point I turned the whole thing over to my husband and asked him to weave in the last two strips because the season premiere of The Walking Dead had started. I was crurled up in a little ball forgetting to breathe very distracted and didn’t take photographs of this step. But it did take him almost 1/2 hour and a lot of swearing to weave in those last two strips. Fortunately he has no interest in The Walking Dead and he didn’t mind not watching. (Though he said watching me watching the show was highly amusing.) I did manage to sew the last two pieces closed during the commercial breaks.
Until you get to the very last step, this is a super easy, super fast project. An advanced degree in physics almost required to get those last two strips in the right place and a whole lot of patience is necessary. Or a spouse who is willing to do it for you. But I am happy to say one more project is off the list, and I am one step closer to the end of the Christmas knitting.
For more Friday goodies check out Tami’s Blog, Creative Friday, Fibre Arts Friday,and Fibres on Friday.
whendidibecomeaknitter 