While looking for an easy knitting pattern for a dachshund dog toy to make for my grandnephew I came across this one from Amanda Berry. I have previously shared another free pattern for a smaller dachshund puppy on this website but I needed a larger toy. The free puppy pattern makes a toy that is around 11cm by 7.5cm whereas this one is 27cm long by 16.5cm tall – perfect for this project.
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This larger version is available to download for a small investment. As it has been created by well-known designer Amanda Berry I know that it will be well worth it and the instructions, as in previous patterns will be detailed and easy to follow.
To purchase the pattern —> Click the images above to be directed to the website
Contents
Skill Levels Required to Knit this Dachshund?
On the website listing for this item, you will see that it gives the skill level as advanced and on the downloaded pattern it then says intermediate. However, having looked through the instructions I feel that a confident beginner who is keen to learn a few new techniques could manage this one.
Let’s look at what techniques are used then you the reader can decide whether you want to give it a go.
Techniques Used in this Pattern
Everything is worked flat on straight knitting needles – no circulars needed.
Casting on and off and pull-through to cast off technique.
This is not difficult to do as all you do is cut off a long piece of yarn, thread the yarn onto a tapestry needle. Then thread it through the stitches that remain on your needle, then pull them off the needle, and gather them together and tie them to secure.
Knit and Purl
Increase techniques –
kfb – knit into front and back of a stitch
Decrease techniques
ssk – slip slip knit those slipped stitches together through the front of the loops.
K2tog – knit two stitches together
Intarsia colour work
You’ll see from the image that the snout has two colours which means a tiny bit of intarsia colour work knitting will be needed here. There are only 17 rows of colour work so that seems like it would be an ideal opportunity to learn how to do intarsia.
Swiss Darn or Duplicate Stitch
Swiss darning or duplicate stitch is another technique that is used to make the impression of eyebrows. Watch this video here which demonstrates how easy this method is to do.
So although this pattern is set at an intermediate / advanced level it provides a project for confident beginners to learn these new techniques – and they really are not difficult.
Needle Size?
A pair of 3.75mm (US 5) straight single-point knitting needles (#affiliate link) is needed. I love the quality of the wood and the feel of these needles.
What Yarn To Use?
4 colours of double-knit yarn are needed for this project.
- Black for the body ( or dark brown if you prefer)
- fudge / ginger bread for snout and feet
- dark chocolate for nose
- green or any colour you like for the collar
You will need black (100g) for most of the project and a smaller amount of fudge / gingerbread colour for parts of the snout and the feet. A small amount of dark chocolate colour is needed to embroider the nose. The collar is done in a light green shade.
If you don’t have any suitable black yarn in your stash then the Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK yarn range would be a good choice. Normally I like to shop for yarn at Lovecrafts but sometimes they don’t have stocks of the colours I want. At the time of writing, they do have a coffee bean and soft fudge shade in their Paintbox Yarns Simply DK range
Making Up the Toy
This pattern has a section that gives instructions on how to make up the toy from the knitted flat pieces. When you get to this section you will need to have –
- A tapestry needle with which to sew the parts together
- Some toy filling
- a pair of 12mm safety eyes
Recommendation
This adorable toy knitting pattern is suitable for intermediate knitters as well as for beginners who are keen to improve their skills by learning the few extra methods that this project requires.
This pattern is simple to follow when it comes to knitting the flat pieces but a little more tricky when filling it up and creating the soft toy.
Don’t Overfill the Body Part Sections
I found that I over-stuffed the legs, the body and the head and the stuffing tended to show through a bit. So I had to remove some of it.
Also, the dog stands better if the top part of the legs are not too filled up.
Study the images carefully to see where things like the eyes and ears should be set
I also added safety eyes and then filled the head and closed the back of the head up before really checking to see if I had them set in the correct position.
It was only when I looked very carefully at the images on the pattern that I saw I had the eyes positioned too high up on the dog’s head.
In the end, I had to carefully remove the “safety eyes” as I could not open the back of the head – I had done too good a job of sewing in the threads! I ended up crocheting some and sewing them on. The video below shows how to do this
I was pleased in the end to find a new way of doing the eyes as the so-called safety ones did not fill me with confidence as I was able to remove them from the outside. When I had tried to embroider them I could not get the two to match each other – and the dog looked a bit odd to say the least!
When positioning the ears I had to pin them on and take a look. This took a bit of trial and error and again looking at the images on the pattern. It can disappointing if the look is not quite right so it pays to take it slowly and fiddle a bit.
Embroidering the Nose
I had to fiddle a bit to get this right as the pattern just said embroider the nose “using long vertical stitches” I needed a bit more guidance to get it right. See the video below which helped me do this part.
The Dog’s Collar
The collar in the pattern is done in a few rows of garter stitch. I find in the soft toy dogs I have made in the past it disappears into their necks so I did this one in seed stitch and then folded it over and sewed it up along the long edge to make it into a tube. This made a thicker collar which had more impact.
I hope this post will help you knit your own dachshund toy dog that you can give as a gift. My great nephew loves the one I made him. He has called it Darcey after a real pet dachshund dog belonging to his uncle.
