Willow the Sled Dog Square is the 10th square in a series of afghan squares inspired by Blair Braverman’s sled dogs. This square was designed for BAMCAL 2020’s March main square and is named for the sled dog Willow.

Blair has a large following on social media (Twitter), which has become a community of very generous and genuinely nice people. This community calls itself the #uglydogs, because an internet troll once told Blair to “go back to your ugly dogs, Karen” and Blair will always come back to her fans.

Blair is an amazing storyteller and she describes each of the dogs’ unique personalities with humor and grace. She and her husband, Quince Mountain, inspire us everyday to face our challenges (whatever they may be) with courage, humility, determination and humor.

Blair completed her rookie Iditarod in March 2019. Quince will be running his rookie Iditarod this month!!!

US terms used.
Skill level: advanced beginner to intermediate

The gauge does not matter for this square. The finished size will depend on the weight of yarn and size hook used.

If you use worsted weight yarn and a 5.0 mm hook, the finished size should be 12” or 30 cm.

There are two downloads. One is a traditional pattern. The other one has round-by-round photos for beginners. This document is intended for online/computer viewing as it has a lot of photos and is quite lengthy.

Blair has given me permission to use her photos of Willow in the pattern.

Special thanks to my testers (God bless them!): JustJilly2 , Berniece , Birdlebee , and madaboutpooh