Salukis!

Being a besotted Saluki owner, I've always been very disappointed not to find more merchandise featuring these gorgeous dogs. I'm sure if I lived in America I would find lots of stuff, but over here in the UK there is very little and what there is is generally......well, not very nice. So I have made it my mission to quietly infiltrate the market. I started last year when I slipped a saluki pup into the calendar illustrations I was commissioned to do - he's Mr. October.


I've made a couple of crocheted and felt copies of my own dog which are for sale on my Etsy shop, and this weekend I knitted the above little fellow. To be honest, he wasn't planned to be a saluki, I just wanted to see what would happen if I used soft fluffy eyelash yarn for the ears and tail of one of these pups. However, as soon as I attached the ears he took on the look of a saluki, so he had to have the long sweeping tail and I gave him fluffy toes for good measure - he can't chase gazelles in the desert without hairy feet you know!


He still only has the knitted coat, but as soon as the rest of his accessories are made, he will be on Etsy ready to spread the word about salukis. I expect he will be a darned sight better behaved than the real thing - they may look elegant and beautiful, but they are a law unto themselves and need a patient and firm owner who is not afraid of mud, crashing through brambles chasing a runaway dog, clearing up the contents of the kitchen bin after he's rifled through every last piece, having their most prized (and expensive) possession neatly vandalised as punishment for leaving him on his own for more than a couple of hours.....the list goes on!

By the way, the lovely art book he is sitting on was found at our local cheapy bookstore for 99p! Full of the most beautiful delicate butterfly paintings - what a bargain.