This is Alan. Ngoc Vu says that Alan is my friendly crocodile. Ngoc Vu lives in Ho Chi Minh (Ngoc Vu, not Alan) and she is the first Vietnamese knit designer whose patterns I’ve knit. Her English version Alan pattern is clearly written and free of errors. It’s extremely detailed and very long–28 pages–with gobs of great photo illustrations. Good golly, Miss Molly, it’s worth the read (and the knitting time)!

I typically prefer to work from paper patterns. I know, so old school. This time I decided to save some trees and print only about half the pages. When I needed help from the photos, I checked out the full pattern on my desktop or IPad.

I knit Alan in Plymouth Yarns DK Merino Superwash. It worked up very nicely in this pattern.

One of Alan’s excellent features is how his beefy tail keeps him balanced on his feet. It functions like a kickstand on a bike.

Alan, in all his 28-page glory, is totally worth the considerable time required to knit him. But brace yourself for a major sewing project when your knitting’s complete. Some of his parts could easily be knit in the round. Instead, I followed the pattern exactly on this my first knit. Well, except…after knitting Alan’s black sunglasses, I decided I didn’t want those totally cute cupcake-shaped croc eyes obscured by a pair of shades.

Ngoc Vu has a wonderful and very distinctive set of knit toy patterns available on Ravelry. Check them out here. Alan was my first knit from her collection. I’m especially taken with her Wild Bunny Amie and Angry Cat Labby.