When Nipiti, a fantastic crochet pattern designer, put out a call for testers to make her newest pattern, I jumped at the chance. She had designed a Ryder doll!!! Ryder is the human who works with the puppies on the animated TV show, Paw Patrol, on the Nick Jr. channel. Knowing that my Petey and Charbunkle love Paw Patrol, I knew I had to give Ryder a try! Isn't his hair hilariously awesome?!? So funny and so perfect. Here's what Ryder looks like in the TV show: Nipiti did a fantastic job! You can buy the pattern on Ravelry (and Etsy, too, I believe), and as one of the testers, I can vouch for the perfection of the pattern. For some reason, my Ryder's head turned out a bit triangular, but that was definitely user error on my part. Nipiti and the other two testers had no problem giving Ryder an adorable little jaw line. It might have been my yarn and it might have been the fact that I ran out of my normal poly-fil and was using some of my friend's which was slightly different, I think. When you run out of craft supplies while on vacation at a lake in Arkansas, you make do.... Thanks for saving me, Rhetta!! Because I was testing the pattern for the wonderful Nipiti, I took a few in-progress pictures, which I don't do very often (other than sending blurry cell phone pictures to my mom and sister). Here's a peek behind the curtain for you! I weighed my yarn before and after crocheting Ryder so that we could estimate how much I used. Progress! Isn't that adorable how if you lift up Ryder's pants cuff, you can see a little flash of ankle? Slightly blurry progress picture I took in Arkansas while on vacation.... Our iPad is having camera focusing issues. Hahahahahaha, Ryder's hair in the early stages looked a bit like Edward Scissorhands' hair (according to Niki)! I took this picture to show how huge my Ryder turned out. Nipiti typically designs her amigurumis using thinner yarn, but I am addicted to using Red Heart worsted weight, so when I test patterns for her, my finished objects are much bigger! Sonia wanted to keep Ryder for herself, but I made him with her cousin, Petey, in mind. Ryder needs to go to Michigan to join Charlotte's Skye Paw Patrol puppy! If you have a little buddy who is a Paw Patrol fan, I highly recommend this pattern! You will have a great time making it.
