Click on this photo to see more dogs

For the past fourteen years, Teal has worked most days in her sewing workroom behind her Berkeley home. She loves her job working with fabric, creating custom slipcovers, window treatments, cushions, pillows and other stuff for her Bay Area clients. As her children have grown and required less of her time she’s found that she was using her newly acquired free time to put in even more hours working in her business.

“ As my children have gotten older and needed me to be around less I found that I spent every idle moment working. I would start dinner and instead of helping with homework, as I used to do, I was going back to my workroom. I would spend 10 minutes making dinner and 10 minutes in my workroom, 15 minutes doing dishes and then back to my workroom. I was going mad; I needed a creative outlet that was fun and rewarding. I have always had hobbies but with kids, husband, social commitments and work they had all gone idle.”

Then one day Teal was in a bookstore wandering through the stacks hoping to find something “good” when a small paperback book with a little knit dog on the cover caught her eye. It was called, Knit Your Own Dog. She picked it up and bought it without thinking twice.

“The first dog I knit was a black Labrador. Success! He is adorable! Then I tried a cocker spaniel. Well … he is a bit of a pinhead. Then a few more pups with varying degrees of success but definitely getting better. No matter the final results, knitting these dogs is thoroughly rewarding. I have an attachment to each one of them and by the time they are done I always feel like I’ve created a little pup with a unique personality. We love our (real) dogs so much; somehow these little knitted guys are a tribute to them. They make wonderful special gifts for the dog lovers in your life.”

If you are thinking of trying to knit your own little dog you will need to know at least knitting basics and be able to follow a knitting pattern. These Dogs are small and relatively inexpensive to make but they do take considerable time to complete. Teal does most of her knitting while watching TV or riding in the car. If you want to see a selection of her puppies click on the gallery tab and select Teal’s knit dogs. You can also check out the work she does for her day job at www.customslipcovers.net. Surprise yourself, create something today. RS Williams 2014