I have had the pleasure of pattern testing this pattern for Aidie and Jellybean. I made up my version exactly the same as her pattern so I could fully test it correctly :-). I will also be making another version afterwards that’s all black as where I live Labradors are solid in colour.

You can get this pattern here as it’s not currently listed on Ravelry but it’s for sale in the designers Etsy shop. She sells patterns but also offers her creations pre-made as well :-) so if you don’t want to make this cute dog yourself you can get her to make it for you!

Pattern Notes

I followed the pattern as she wrote it, the only difference was I didn’t sew the eyes on at the stage she did. I was having problems getting the finish I wanted and I know the best thing for me to do is take a step back and do it later. I didn’t want to stall my process so I continued putting the rest of the dog together knowing I could do the eyes at the end without any problems :-). I did do the eyes at the end and having that break helped. I got the results I wanted and I am pretty happy with the finished look of the eyes!

••• Notes on stuffing the dog •••

Oh I nearly forgot, the designer doesn’t add stuffing to the arms and legs but I do. I only add a little stuffing, say 2/3 full and I keep it lightly stuffed so not firm. For me personally it’s what I prefer but I always make sure the end of the arms and legs are flat so it makes it easier to sew them in place as well as getting a good finish as you don’t want stuffing to make these parts bulge out. For the leg shapes I really was very light on the stuffing as I wanted to make sure they laid fairly flat to the body but still had some in the end of the foot. At the end of the day you do what you feel is best but I prefer a little light stuffing inside.

Other than this I do use tights before adding my stuffing to keep the stuffing from coming through my work, this not only keeps the finished project safer for children but it also helps to give a nice neat finish as no stuffing will ever come through the pieces. I only did this to the head and body though as the arms and legs were small, and I only added a small amount of stuffing to them (it would of been very fiddly to do this in the smaller parts and usually you can get away with not doing it).

••• Notes on Sewing the dog •••

For the eyes I sewed the white in place and then added the black, I did find this really tricky and I was bot sure how the designer did hers. I added the optional stitch with some extra white yarn and I secured this to the back of the black and white eye before sewing. By this I mean the white and black parts of the eye were technically held together by this one stitch, I then sewed down the white part of the eye before going onto securing the black part of the eye down. I found it hard to start with but by the end I was happy with the result.

Please Note after pattern testing the designer added more information on how to do the eyes. She tells you to sew the black eye piece onto the white before then sewing the eye in place on the head. As for the optional stitch in white that goes over the Black, she shares how she did this and it was by using the yarn tail from her white eye (the yarn tail created from starting the eye not the end yarn tail!). So for future reference I suggest doing how she did and not how I did first time. I have made this pattern again since and I can definately say it’s easier this way.

Oh and make sure you don’t forget to do the eye lids as I very nearly did.. lol! As the yarn I was using was very thin I did need to go over a few more times to get the same finish but I must say it finished of the eyes/face perfectly.

I did add some tacking down stitches to the arms as well, this is to help keep them in the place I would like them to sit. This is purely personal preference and up to you whether you’d like to do this or not .

Please excuse some of the poor photos I took during the making of this project. Black yarn is so hard to photograph and it seems to pick up any little thing so no matter how much I tried to keep the yarn clean often a hair would get in the photo. I hope you’ll still enjoy my work in progress photos even though they are not up to my usual standards.

••• General Notes •••

Overall great pattern and really easy to follow. If you want to make your lab a solid colour the pattern is very easy to adapt as all you do is not change over colour to white. I found this dog a pleasure to make and I am sure you will too :-). She includes detailed instructions which include photos at certain stages and this is always really helpful. I have nothing negative to say about this pattern, it’s great and I love how cute my dog has turned out.

The only thing I am not happy with is the yarn I used, I think it was a bit too thin for the pattern and as it’s lovely and soft it’s a bit fuzzy. The yarn I used is actually discontinued now, it is called DK but actually it’s closer to 4ply hence me saying I felt it was a bit too thin for the pattern. Of course you can easily work this pattern up in any weight yarn you like and you’ll get a cute result like mine, I am just personally not as happy with the result from the yarn. I am about to make another in a different yarn and I will link to this here when it’s finished.

UPDATE: Actually this cute doggy has really grown on me and I am much happier with the finish now. I would still say that generally this yarn is too thin for the pattern but it does produce a nice result at the end . All I might do differently if I used the same yarn again is to go down a hook size again, maybe 1.75mm hook?

Please Note: I made mine using a 2mm hook as I don’t have a 2.25mm hook. I have a feeling I would of needed the smaller size anyway due to the thinness of my yarn.

••• Note on Hook Sizes and Yarn Used •••

For the main pattern I used a 2mm hook and Three Bears Yarn Affection 100% Cotton DK weight yarn.

For the eyes I used a 1mm hook and Scheepjes Maxi Bon Bon (now known as Sweet Treat) 100% Cotton lace weight yarn.

I did not record the amount of yarn used for the dog nose or the eyes because I used so little it was impossible to record the amount I used. I still added the yarn and the colours used as reference though.

☆☆Blog post coming soon with more details on pattern testing this lovely pattern.☆☆