More than a year ago, I found Tau – designed by Dawn Toussaint and I fell in love.

Tau – The Pattern

I love Dawn Toussaint’s Designs – I have purchased a few of them – and they have been sitting, waiting patiently for me to work up my nerve to give them a try.

Dawn’s patterns are worked as ‘one-piece’, meaning you crochet the limbs, tail, etc. and then stuff them and set them aside…and crochet them into the body as you go. The only parts that are hand-sewn to Tau were the ears, nose and eyelashes.

This is not a beginner-level pattern. At least I didn’t feel it was.

The written instructions were very clear. There were a few diagrams and photos; but no real photo tutorial.

I had some difficulty because I did not put the eyes directly across from the finishing stitch of the round. This caused the limb placement to be ‘off’ and I had to manually recalculate the rounds to ensure the arms and legs ended up where they were supposed to end-up.

So – in hindsight, my ‘note to self’ would be make sure at the end of the round you place the eyes on the correct side of the ‘face’! Having never made a pattern in one-piece – I didn’t even think eye placement might cause the problems it did.

The mane technique was time-consuming BUT well worth the effort. I actually enjoyed making it – I sat listening to my Audiobook and I was able to relax (somewhat – no stitch counts running through my mind) and make the mane over a period of a few hours (with interruptions from the Littles of course!). It helped that I am completely loving the current audiobook (“Discovery of Witches” – Deborah Harkness).

The template provided for the felt backing for the eyes seems to be too small. When I cut it out and then used it to make my felt pieces, I could barely see the felt behind my 12-mm plastic safety eyes. The effect on Dawn’s Tau was so different from what I achieved, I tried to hand-cut larger ones. I think they needed to be even larger though!

Here is Dawn’s fabulous Tau: