The forgotten FO

I almost forgot about this little yarnball that I knitted for one of my girlfriends at work! She just got the most adorable little puppy, so I wanted to knit the little tyke a toy to bat around.

It was a quick, easy knit, about the size of a grapefruit, with 12 sections of short rows to give it a beach ball effect. This one here is the second pass at the project. When I finished the first one, I wasn't happy with the gappy ends and even though I was careful with my tension, the last couple of sections seemed wider than the others. And the seam looked like a butt.

So I knitted up a second one, and in doing so encountered the same problems with the assymetrical sections and gappy (though slightly less so) ends. But overall it turned out much better than the first one, so that one went to little Rocky! (Okay, yes, I was being a little too anal for a freaking dog toy, but that's just me).

I filled it with leftover batting from a chair I recushioned (have I mentioned I'm a bit of an HGTV freak as well?) to make it nice and cushy for a little puppy to sink his teeth into, plus a little jingle bell in the center just for fun. She came back the day after I gave it to her just raving about it - she said it was already Rocky's favorite toy, that he LOVED chasing it, picking it up in his little mouth, and running around with it! That just gave me the warm fuzzies all over. It is SO much fun to knit stuff for other people - even more than for myself!

Oh, and hubby's happy because he got the trial yarnball. Makes it easy to call him for dinner, too.


I'm king of the daybed!

Rocky's Yarnball
Pattern: Judy's 12-section Yarnball
Yarn: Plymouth Encore
Needles: Crystal Palace 4
Lesson learned: Sometimes it's better the second time around.