Sunday, January 20, 2008

Pug Rugalug Crochet Square Progress

Meet Nora. This photo was sent to me from a lady on ravelry. Now of course you are thinking, "since when did the pug become an Australian native animal?"

Now pugs wouldn't normally be on my radar, but I was asked to make a pug pattern, for all the pug lovers out there. I am of the opinion that these dogs were at the end of the queue when God was handing out good looks to the animals. Although this little guy looks kinda cute with the manipulative puppy dog eyes.


So how on earth do I create a pug square like my other rugalugs squares? I thought I would share my progress. I start by looking at a range of photos of the critter and trying to work out what it is that makes it distinct from other critters.

I also do a simple pencil drawing so I can imagine the shape and placement of the features. This is my working notebook that I jot things down in. I often think about a design for weeks and months before I start with the hook.



Yep there are scribbles everywhere and sometimes I don't even know what I mean! I have the habit of doing little pencil sketches as I go along as I try and visualise the shape and transform this to increases and decreases.
So after a few weeks of looking at pugs, and thinking about pugs, I decided that the bits that make a pug a pug, are the downward ears, goggle eyes, and squished in snout. They look like they have hydrocephalus and remind me of those unfortunate little kids who because of their intracranial pressure have poppy eyes.

The first thing I do is to try and get an idea of the shape and facial features. I usually work in a light coloured yarn as it is easier for me to see the stitches and get a correct count.

So the bloke below is pug 1. He doesn't look very pugly at all, and I think I have made far too many koalas in my life as he looks like a hybrid koala and possum on speed. The problems are his eyes are too high. In the original the eyes are on the horizontal mid plane. The ears are too close together, the nose too big and too low, the mouth not large enough and the head is too round.



So here is Pug 2 below. This time I tried to use pug colours made the ears a bit longer and further apart, moved the eyes down, used a different colour for the snout and added some eye brows.


I think it is getting close to Nora in the picture. While I have done the nose and mouth in black, they don't show up real well against the dark brown. The next attempt I will try some different colour combos to see what works best and do a bit of tweaking. At this point I will type the pattern up into Australian /UK terms as this is my native crochet tongue. So attempt 3 I will do as I edit the typed up version for the first time.

So what do you think? What bits need to be tweaked to get the real fugly pugly look?

Thanks to Leslie for sending me the photos of her pug. Nora gave permission for me to use her pictures as long as they’re flattering to her figure!


(c) crochetroo 2008. please do not copy or I will set a pug upon you!

16 comments:

Nicole said...

Wow, you are really really good at this. I think you did all pugs justice in their representation in crochet.

Anonymous said...

The talent NEVER ceases to amaze me. You go girl.

SNL from over at The Ville!

Anonymous said...

OMG susan thats is awesome! you are so close i am sure attempt no. 3 will be perfect! how cool - and here i have been trying to figure out how to do a black lab - i guess i should leave the designing to you!

keep up the good work!
kris

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh! Nora says "thanks" for letting her be the model for your pug pattern. She thinks you're definitely on the right track. Thanks so much, Susan, for putting up with my whining for a pug motif. You rock! Blessings, Leslie and Nora

Trish said...

So cute!!!! how about adding some "wrinkles"? Maybe just lines of black on the forehead. Pugs are famous for their wrinkles too ya know! :) Great job!

Anonymous said...

Great Job! This made me laugh - and also admire your creativity.
Brenda in California

Unknown said...

Please let us see the pattern. I have a pug named Millie who I adore.

I would love to use your pattern.

Thank you.

Wanda

Gene said...

That's adorable! I want to adopt a pug someday. There something cute about the not so good looking face. Okay, that's so contradictory but can anyone resist those droopy eyes? Definitely not me.

Anonymous said...

wow! you are so talented.

Anonymous said...

OK, so I can't stop coming back to this blog to look at the motif. Susan, I just LOVE this! I have so many plans for the "Nora Motif." I've just finished a prayer shawl for my 90 year old neighbor in "Nora colors" and, since Rita adores my Puglet, I'm going to put the motifs on the ends so Rita will always have Nora near her. Thank you so much for creating this special motif. It's going to be a very nice addition to your pattern series. Yeah, yeah, pugs don't "grow" in Australia and I've always wanted my very own koala.

You rock!
Leslie and Nora

Tina said...

I think #3 looks the most like a pug. I have never owned a pug, though. Or been by one long enough to really look at it.

Great work once again, Cupcake!

Chanti said...

Hi Susan, Abbie 2.5 came in just as I was looking at you rfirst attmept(the koala/possum hybrid) and said "KOALA", I think you have definately moved it into a very flattering Nora since your "Koala"
Cheers
Chantelle.

Aim said...

Susan, I love that you shared your design process with us! That is a really cool thought process :) And your designs are so perfect, I think I knew you did each one multiple times to get it just right!

You are very talented :)

Anonymous said...

wonderful work...would love to do a square of my irish terrier...can't even begin to think of a start!

thompson@crunet.com

PattieJ said...

I LOVE your Pug square!!! And your real pug too!(what a cutie!) I have 5 pugs (3 are rescues) I would love to buy your pug pattern!! I was wondering if you would be selling your pug square pattern in your Etsy shop anytime soon? I wanted to email you but I couldn't find any type of "contact" info on your blog.

Pattie

patty said...

where can i find the patterns for the butterflies and gecko?