This was not a particularly easy project for me. The knitting was made more difficult for me because I wanted to make him in two colours and had to work out where to include the tan. The sewing up took a long time and much patience to get to my satisfaction. Working in black didn’t help matters as my eyesight is not the best these days and if I had to undo stitching….much swearing was involved. Hardest part is getting the legs in the right place. I recommend pinning and then basting before finally sewing. I added doubled up pipe cleaners in the legs to give some added strength as I stuffed them. Getting the nose straight was quite difficult and there again, basting helped (after two unpickings).

Reading other people’s notes and looking at their photos was very helpful.

The Alan Dart design is absolutely brilliant and very lifelike. The pattern is very clear but as I did each row I wrote it down so I didn’t get mixed up. The rows are not numbered and if you are not very alert it is easy to get muddled…well for this old bird it is anyway :-)