Jake the Dog
Materials:
Size 3 (3.25 mm) straight knitting needles
Size 4 (3.5 mm) double pointed needles
Yarn: Two skeins of
Vanna’s Choice yarn in Mustard
A small amount of black yarn
Tapestry Needle
Sewing needle
Black thread
Two circles of black felt 2” in diameter
Two circles of white felt 1.5” in diameter
Small oval of black felt (approx 1” across and .5” high)
Stuffing
Notes:
Inc: Knit/Purl front and back
Dec: Knit/Purl two together
When sewing together pieces, use the invisible
horizontal/vertical seam methods.
I find that the cable cast on method works best for this
project.
Body (Make 2):
CO 30 st
R1) Knit
R2) P1, inc, purl
until last two st, inc, P1 (32 st)
R3) Knit
R4) P1, inc, purl
until last two st, inc, P1 (34 st)
R5) Knit
R6) P1, inc, purl
until last two st, inc, P1 (36 st)
R7) Knit
R8) P1, inc, purl
until last two st, inc, P1 (38 st)
R9-R69) Knit odd
rows, purl even rows
R70) P1, dec,
purl until last three st, dec, P1 (36 st)
R71) Knit
R72) P1, dec,
purl until last three st, dec, P1 (34 st)
R73) Knit
R74) P1, dec,
purl until last three st, dec, P1 (32
st)
R75) Knit
R76) P1, dec,
purl until last three st, dec, P1 (30
st)
R77) Knit.
Cast off.
Jowls:
Forming the lower
jowls:
CO 5 st
R1) inc, purl
until last stitch, inc (7 st)
R2) Knit
R3) inc, purl
until last stitch, inc (9 st)
R4-R13) Knit even
rows, purl odd rows
R14) Purl all
stitches, then CO 5 stitches (14 st)
Cut yarn and place all stitches on a stitch holder. Repeat rows 1-14 again. Cut yarn and then pick up the stitches from
the stitch holder such that the five cast on stitches from each piece “meet” in
the middle. Also, arrange your stitches
such that you will pick up working on the right side. (28 st)
R15) Knit
R16) Purl
R17) Knit
R18) Purl
R19) K1, dec, knit until last three st, dec, K1 (26 st)
R20) Purl
R21) K1, dec, knit until last three st, dec, K1 (24 st)
Cast off.
Putting the body
together:
Start by stitching together the two sides of Jake’s body. Begin at the bottom using an invisible stitch and work your way up the sides. Once you have almost reached the top, take a break. We are going to add the facial features.
Now, since I improvise my designs, the jowls ended up being a bit difficult to work with. There is definitely more jowl than needed. I started sewing the jowls to the body from the top of the jowls and working my way down until I had deemed I had reached optimal Jake jowl length. I tucked a decent amount of the jowls up into themselves since they were a little long. But this works out fine since his jowls need to be stuffed anyways.
Start by stitching together the two sides of Jake’s body. Begin at the bottom using an invisible stitch and work your way up the sides. Once you have almost reached the top, take a break. We are going to add the facial features.
Now, since I improvise my designs, the jowls ended up being a bit difficult to work with. There is definitely more jowl than needed. I started sewing the jowls to the body from the top of the jowls and working my way down until I had deemed I had reached optimal Jake jowl length. I tucked a decent amount of the jowls up into themselves since they were a little long. But this works out fine since his jowls need to be stuffed anyways.
Before you finish sewing the jowls up, make sure to put a
little bit of stuffing in them to lift them off the face.
Next, take some
of your black yarn and give your Jake a smile!
After that we want to sew on the eyes. Cut out your circles of white and black
felt. Sew (using needle and thread) the
white circles onto the black so that the tops of the circles are lined up. Next sew the eyes onto your body. When figuring out where to put the eyes, I
like to stuff Jake to get a better idea of what he will look like filled out. I then pin the eyes in place and take the
stuffing out before sewing them on. Try
and get them as close to the jowls as you can.
Next sew on your oval of black felt for this nose. Sew this right onto the jowls.
Go back to stitching the two sides of the Jake together,
stuffing as you go. (We are going to add the legs/arms/tail/and ears onto the
body after he is stuffed and sewn together).
Make sure you have stuffed him sufficiently, and then finish stitching
him up, hiding the loose ends within the body.
Ears (Make one on
each side of head):
With DPN, pick up 15 stitches in an oval where you want to place
the ears. (I placed them directly on the side, slightly under the top of his head)
**You can choose to just knit the legs/arms/ears/tail off
the body, and then sew them on afterward. I find that picking up stitches leads to a cleaner look.
R1-R6) Knit
R7) *K4, inc* three times (18 st)
R8-R12) Knit
R13) *K1, dec* six times (12 st)
R14) Knit
R15) *dec* six times
(6 st)
Thread yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight. Tie
off.
Arms and Legs:
With DPN, pick up 18 stitches in an oval where you would
like the legs/arms. (I usually make it a
pretty thin oval, as this allows for easy bending)
Continue in stockinet stitch until you reach the desired
length. My arms and legs are somewhere
between 5 and 6 inches long. Seeing as Jake is a magical dog, the length is up to
you!
Keep track of how
many rows you make on your first arm/leg so that the other will be even!
When the arms/legs are the length you want them, stuff them
firmly and finish using these three rows:
R1) *K1, dec* six times (12 st)
R2) Knit
R3) *dec* six times (6 st)
Thread yarn through stitches and pull tight. Tie off.
Tail:
With DPN, pick up 15 stitches in an oval where you would
like the tail.
R1-R5) Knit
R6) *K3, dec* three times (12 st)
R7) Knit
R8) Knit
R9) *K2, dec* three times (9 st)
R10) Knit
R11) Knit
Add a small amount of stuffing.
R12) *K1, dec* three times (6 st)
R13) *dec* three times (3 st)
Thread yarn through remaining stitches and pull tight. Tie
off.
You should now have your very own Jake the Dog!
As always, writing out patterns is not one of my strengths
in this process. Please let me know if
you need clarification on anything! Good luck!
