The knitting is complete on the double knit Stuffed Pony from “Notes on Double Knitting”. The moment of truth will be when it’s turned right-side out and stuffed. As you can tell from the photos, since this is worked “flat” back and forth and inside-out, it doesn’t look like much on the needles. This pattern does require a certain amount of faith as you go along.

So I wanted to post progress photos for reference for anyone who would like to knit this pattern in the future.

Here the piece is worked to where the Crest is completed. 

Here it is with the foundation stitches for the ears and the head completed.

Errata note: I believe there is an error after you “Lay foundation stitches for ears” and in the “Next row” section it says at the end to work 8 rows even. However the start of the head next calls to begin the round at the underside of the neck, for this you actually need to work 7 rows even.

At this stage the ears are picked up and finished and the 3rd leg is almost complete. I found the instructions for where to attach the yarn for the legs a little confusing at first. After three attempts I figured out “back of leg” means the inside, near the belly. And “back of leg (inner edge)” means the inside and at the “front” of the leg or the side nearest the head.

Knitting complete and ends all woven in. Next is to turn it right-side out, stuff, graft closed, and add mane and tail- then the final reveal!

I’ve been getting my double knitting groove on again.

For some time I’ve wanted to try another one of Beverly Royce’s amazing patterns from the out of print “Notes on Double Knitting“. I’ve been lucky enough to rent a copy via Interlibrary loan and photocopied some pages for my reference.

Image from book, © Schoolhouse Press/Beverly Royce  

This is the Stuffed Pony pattern from the cover. It’s really an amazingly ingenious pattern. Worked entirely on two needles back and forth, using Double Knit, short rows, and inc/dec shaping to form a nearly seamless horse. It’s also worked “inside-out” as it’s easier to work the “knit1, slip 1″ double knit pattern this way.

This rather nondescript blob is part of the body. It starts at the underbelly with inset stitches worked in waste yarn to be removed later for the leg openings. This picture is it at half way through the 4th set of short rows. It calls for four different colors of yarn for each leg (labled A,B,C, and D) but I couldn’t be bothered to find that many in the same gauge so I just added knots on the end of each (1-4 respectively) to label them. So far so good!