The Chivalrous Love Pig

There are only two things that relate this little piglet to Valentine's Day. 1) It is pink. 2) I decided to post this project today!

This piglet was knit on hand (tea) dyed wool yarn on size 1 (2.5 mm) needles. This pattern can be found in the book World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny (along with many other really cute little animals).

Oh no! Everything knit up except for the ears and tails, and I'm out of yarn!

Dyeing your own yarn for projects is fun, and there are many advantages including the ability to make a small amount of a color for a tiny project without purchasing a whole ball. Most knitters know about the problems with dyelots, and that when you're planning a big project it is better to get too much yarn than not enough because another dyelot may not be the same color. I suppose I could achieve a pretty close color if I were to re-attempt this pink, but I need so little yarn to finish up the ears and tail that I wanted to look in my stash and find something complementary.

The knit pig body with different strands from my stash laid acorss it. From left to right, a rowan DK pink, worsted weight hand dyed wool-ease yarn, tea dyed palette, white palette yarn.

The Rowan pink was closest in color, but it was so solid that it stood out against the rest of the pig. I chose the hand dyed wool ease yarn, and divided the 4-ply worsted yarn into a 2-ply "small enough to work for this pattern" weight. You can tell when you look up close, but from afar, who would know that I didn't dye enough pink?

Big tip, sew things together with thread, not yarn. It is MUCH easier and far less bulky.

Happy Valentine's Day!