Being Creative

  Early last spring, our Collie club decided to participate in a Dog Days event.  It was going to be a great chance for the club to show the public our wonderful breed and we could also sell items as a fundraiser.
  My interest in knitting got revived with the arrival of our granddaughter.  I found this paw print pattern on Ravelry and decided to adapt it for some items to sell at the club booth.
  First, I made a scarf.  While I was very proud of myself for being able to reverse the pattern directions so my paw prints matched at each end, I realized it was too time consuming to knit and then sell for its proper value. (But, I now have a very nice scarf for this winter!)
  I decided to add a loop to the corner of the original pattern so that it could hang on a doorknob and be handy for wiping dirty, muddy paws as dogs came into the house.  I thought I had a hit on my hands!  A hand knit cloth, 100% cotton, that could be machine washed and dried, a practical item that would look nice and be convenient for use.  I knit up nine mud cloths, three each in red, brown and black.
  By this time, it was early summer and I was pleased that my project was finished way ahead of deadline.  I showed the cloths to my sister, who said "Where's the back? I thought it was a mitt, which would be a lot easier to use".
  I realized she was right and decided to make a back, using a plain stockinette stitch.  I went right to the craft store to buy three more balls of yarn.  There, I hit snag number one.  The store no longer carried the brand of yarn I had used!  But, it was still available online and since I had my original receipt showing the yarn color names, I was easily able to order the colors I needed.  But then, I hit snag number two.  Since so much time had passed, of course I was using different dye lots and the new ball of red didn't match the original ball of red.  Now, what was I going to do?  I decided to make those backs in a different color and decided on a cream.  Back in business!

  It was going to be a tight deadline to get these finished in time for the Dog Days and I thought I may not have all nine available, but at least I would have six finished.  Then it was a big snag number three!

  As we got closer to the date of the event, our volunteers had things coming up that prevented them from helping out and the club decided to cancel our participation in Dog Days.  So now, I have nine paw print mud mitts with no homes!

  I'm not sure what to do with all these mitts.  We only have one door that the dogs use!  I considered giving them to my dog walking clients as Christmas gifts but I think the dogs would rather have treats. I'm thinking about listing the mitts on Etsy or on Craig's List.   I can also keep the mitts until we have litters this spring and include a mitt in each puppy packet.  

  Here's how the mitts turned out:

Unfortunately, the pattern doesn't show up well in the photos!