A Basic Dog Sweater and a Class

You know how much I love to knit dog sweaters. I've knit and blogged about many in the past year. Well I'm happy to say I've knit my best one yet! I say this because I was really able to hone my skills with the gauge swatch, modifying to really fit, and seaming. Using just a simple dog sweater pattern I have really started to practice what I preach... paying attention to your knitting!

Project: Rosie's Basic Dog Sweater

Modified from 5 or 6 different patterns

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in colorway 879, raspberry

Needles: Size 6 (4.0 mm)

Started: February 1, 2014

Completed: February 15, 2014

Isn't she such a scruffy yorkie?! As I mentioned I really liked this project because this was the first that that I felt like I did a decent job with the details (like picking up stitches to add the border) and finishing.  

Trying to get a good shot of the front details was a little difficult. But trust me, compared to my previous projects where I had to seam, this one is really one of my best. Practice makes perfect! 

Back to the sweater pattern.  I ended up taking 5 or 6 patterns that I've used in the past and new skills that I've learned to make my own. And even with making it a basic sweater I still had to adapt the basic pattern to fit Rosie. And in another week or so I will be finishing my Boe basic sweater, which you will see, also had to be heavily adapted to his body. I have found that no matter how good the dog sweater pattern is, it will always need to be adapted. Dog sizes vary so much as do their body shapes (think small pups like the dachshund vs yorkie vs chihuahua). This is what I think scares people so much.

Having said that, in a couple of weeks, I hope to help others get over that fear of adapting patterns to fit. I'll be teaching a dog sweater class at Woolwinders Yarn Shop in April! The website has all the details as well as registration information. Basically I hope to give people confidence to be able to measure their pup, look at a dog sweater pattern and be able to adapt that pattern to fit their little (or big!) pooch. It should be a fun class. It's my first time teaching my own pattern it so I'm hoping that things will work out! But I'm excited and hopefully we get a good turn out!