I work at BarkBox. I love knitting. Days after discussing knitted dogs what shows up at work? The Knit Your Own Dog books. How cool is that? So cool. Let the dog knitting begin.

Full disclosure: I have an English Bulldog. I will knit an English Bulldog but wanted to test run my dog knitting skills on a different breed. Thus Dixie the Dachshund was born.

While I’m totally happy with Dixie here are a few things I could have done better/modifications I made:

• I used two yarns that while officially the same weight, had very different gauges. Not recommended.

• There is a lot of easing in with the seaming. My easing in skills combined with the different weight yarns almost lead to epic failure.

• The face and nose were supposed to be embroidered. I don’t embroider. Thus Beads for eyes an no embroidered nose. And I did a tiny i-cord for collar

• The book advises careful attention to stuffing. I stuffed and re-stuffed and still Dixie prefers to lay down over standing up :) Much more attention to stuffing needed

All and all super psyched to knit more pups! And its a great way to use up stash yarn. May make one more practice pup of a different breed before committing to the English Bulldog.

Kind woofs,

Kaitlin