dog knits – Yards of Happiness

FO: Sparkle & Snow Days

Guess who has a snow day today? ME! The Federal Government is closed, my job is closed and school is closed. Although I’ll do a little work via my computer today, I’ll be wrapped in sweatpants and cuddled by dogs. I’ll take it. So I thought on this snow day I’d share what I just finished and handed off in time for the snow, a Sparkle sweater for a friend’s dog named Maddie.
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It’s rare my husband asks me to knit things, so when he asked if I’d knit a dog sweater for a colleague who always makes sure he has gluten free things at their work events I said sure. He’s watched me whip up sweaters for Cher and Jellybean in a few hours but once I got his the dog’s measurements I knew this might take a wee bit longer. Maddie is a lovely poodle who is fluffy and a lot bigger than my girls, but I was happy to do it for him. He’s just too cute to resist sometimes.
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Since I wasn’t going to get to try the sweater on as I went I decided to stick with the Sparkle sweater pattern since it’s pretty simple. Two slits for the legs, coverage of the belly (that always kinds of makes Jelly look like she’s wearing a tiny cropped top) and then knit the back. I stopped slightly short of the back length in the pattern and I’m glad I did because it would’ve been too long. His colleague asked for a green sweater, so I used the leftover Berroco Ultra Alpaca from my Angelina sweater (and Jellybean’s itty bitty Angelina) because it is just a perfect green.
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I made it halfway through the bind off before I realized I was going to run out of yarn. Thankfully I have a plethora of green yarn and was able to bind off with another and it’s barely noticeable. You can see just a spot of lightness at the tip. It’s such a soft and lovely knit and that green looks great against Maddie’s fur.
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So I’ve got a day of knitting ahead of me and I’m working on a Carbeth for my cousin in Chicago but I’ve also got an idea swirling around in my head for a spring jacket that I might also need to start as well. Sometimes inspiration strikes and I can’t let it pass. And I couldn’t let this selfie by Cher not go unshared, you’re welcome.

FO: Baldric & A Beanie Sweater

I hope you guys had a wonderful holiday if you celebrate Christmas. My husband bought me the camo print Fringe Field Bag with a few enamel pins he thought were cute and gave me a gift card to my favorite yarn shop! He loves me. I was able to finish a gift to myself to wear on the big day and I had just enough yarn leftover to make Jellybean a little sweater too. I mean, what else was I going to do with just 130 yards of leftover yarn?

Baldric and Beanie — As a former yearbook editor I can say this would be the ultimate yearbook photo. LOL

I knit myself the Baldric sweater (you might remember the rose gold version I made my BFF Jess this summer) using Madelintosh Pure Merino Worsted in Cosmic Silver and the Rosco sweater for Bean because it was the same gauge of my project and had texture like my sweater did. So let’s take a look at both, shall we?
Baldric and Beanie
Baldric is a simple top down raglan with very little finishing, so it has a casual feel to it. And you can make it with more ease to make it even more casual. What I really liked about it and why I wanted to make it for myself was the textured panel down the sides and on the arms.
Baldric and Beanie
A little bit of garter stitch detailing goes a long way. It’s a nice touch on a simple sweater like how the Flax sweater has it running down the arms. Or how Mountain High has a panel down the front and decorate details at the raglan increases.

And each sleeve places the garter detail in different spots for more interest. It makes knitting a sleeve a lot more interesting that just a stockinette tube. I did start my increases higher up and made them shorter than what’s in the pattern because I have short arms so they’re fitted very nicely for me.
Baldric and Beanie
For Beanie I cracked open my trusty dusty copy of Seamless Knits for Posh Pups and settled on the Rosco sweater. It’s a top down version that had almost identical gauge to the Baldric sweater AND has some interesting texture to it. In fact I loved this right twist stitch so much I whipped up a hat with that stitch for myself (more on that later this week).
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It’s such a fun way to create the look of a cable without the cable! And I’ve got a fun pom pom in cheetah print to add to this hat.
Baldric and Beanie
With the temps being so low this time of year, Bean has been living in her wool sweaters. And even when wearing a sweater I still find her laying across heating vents to get a blast of warm air and she still naps and stays on her heated mats all day. It’s cold out there for a tiny chihuahua. I’ve got to keep her warm. Cher has a bit more body weight on her so she doesn’t need to be in clothes as much as Beanie does.
Baldric and Beanie
Oh and I also tried to capture how my Flyknit Nikes mimic the same colors and flecks as the Cosmic Silver colorway of the yarn. This yarn is so soft and cozy and the color is just so happy with all the little flecks of brightness on the pale grey. I have a feeling I’ll be wearing a lot during the winter months. So it’s that selfish knitting time of year, what are you planning on making yourself?

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, FO: Finished Object, For Dogs, Jellybean, Knitting, Madelinetosh, My Dogs, neutral (black/grey/white), Sweaters, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, dog knits, Dogs in sweaters, knitting, Madelinetosh, madelinetosh cosmic silver, sweater knitting, Yarn 27 Comments

FO: Scrappy Little Things

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You might be wondering what this is…such a tiny little finished object. Well when I finished knitting the neon pink toy dog the other day I had just the tiniest bit of yarn leftover from the skein. What to make with it? I’m often left with scraps that I put in a big glass bell jar and use for swatching.
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But this time I turned it into a tiny bandana cowl for Jellybean. She looks so regal here. LOL

In the span of about 40 minutes I cast on 41 stitches and whipped this baby up. Even did some short row shaping to get a point. It’s similar to this style of cowl I’ve made for non-dogs and myself before. But really it’s because I’ve been watching the Short Row Shaping mini course on Craftsy (it’s free) to really understand short rows better and to be able to do more in my sweater knitting. I’ve got lots of ideas swirling around in my head and just need the time to learn and test knit a lot. So that’s what I spend my free time doing. What new techniques are you trying to learn?