Ever knitted a poodle?

Even though I bought the wool (well it's 30% wool anyway) a week ago at least, it's only this afternoon that I've actually begun to knit.

I've spent several days pondering over circular needles - asking in the shop, at the village knitting group and looking on the internet - because the pattern specifies 3mm and 4mm circular ones and I haven't got any. But now that I've cast on and found that 220 stitches do indeed fit on my straight needles I'm not going to bother with getting any circular ones as I can't see what advantage they'd be.

This wool would not do for a complete beginner as it's fluffy in places and uneven in thickness, in fact it was quite a job to check the number of stitches - rather like trying to count poodles!

p.s. for those who are wondering why I'm using the old Imperial size 12 needles, instead of 11 which is equivalent to 3mm, it's because I don't have a pair of long enough 11s and thought it wouldn't matter because it's only for the bottom edge ribbing.