Happy New Years my friends !

 
Happy New Years my friends! 


LQQK... Patches is getting a doggy sweater ;)
This my first attempt at knitting a garment other than socks. This is Tatamy Yarn by Kraemer Yarns. It is 45% cotton & 55% acrylic. This first sweater is going to be a mock up for my future patterns. His next one will b in wool because cotton & acrylic for outdoor garments do not stay warm once it gets wet. Wish I'd a found this yarn when i did Trey's spiderman blanket. It would have been perfect for that!
What a good boy he is for modeling! Tho I can tell he's not really sure about this sweater thing because Ic an see he has his ears cowering down a bit.

A closer look.

It does look bit tight but it's stretchy & soft.  If you look at the last pic in this post you can tell Patches has since his rescue sure gets good meals at this house! He has put on a few pounds since he first arrived. But that was four years ago. Back than he was only 17 lbs.  Now he's 23 lbs.  Which IS only six lbs heavier but wow what a difference six pounds makes on a small dog.  I've been dutifully trying to convince dear hubby how bad it is to feed Patch table scraps.  But it's hard for dh to stop sneaking treats to Patch. When we first found him he seemed so tiny and on the thin side. AND he was actually eating the edges of our blanket.  I finally figured out that was his way of telling us he was still hungry. So when I feed him I now give him 2 tablespoons of the "Purina One" canned meat along with his half a cup "Purina One" dry kibble.  Since I added the wet meat to his kibble Patches has stopped eating the edges of our blanket!

I've been knitting in even rounds like a tube, but noticed that when I tried garment on him that the underbelly would sit way shorter in lenght than did the top back panel... I guess his chest was pulling the underbelly up shorter sooooo, I added ten short rows to the underbelly and think I will connect them to the top back panel with a gusset in the corners to rematch up my rounds... There's a lot to learn.

UPDATED**** Well I've since ripped out all those short rows I did because I can't figure out how to reconnect them to the  top back panel on the other circular needle. hmmm.  I do think the "short rows" is the right thing to do to bring the belly portion of the knitting back farther to match up but I am at a lose on how to exactly connect it all up without a big gap happening. If anyone can give me some pointers I'd really love it!

And I needed to redo the leg cuffs. Of course they were too tight when I bound them off. And I knew to watch for that because that is a problem that I read that everybody has. Tight bind off.  

Today I just learned about Jenny's super stretchy bind off !!!! omg it is!  

Go here for the best explanation of it ~ http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/FEATjssbo.

And here to watch it being done on You Tube ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc8dvYVsMMU

This stretchy bind-off sure made the difference for my dog liking his sweater better. Who could blame him?  I wouldn't want my paws choked to death lol.

This is Patches when we first rescued him ;)