Lou got his sweater this weekend. I went up to Michigan on Thursday, for my sisters birthday, which was on friday. So it worked out that I could fit the sweater on Lou, which is SUCH a better idea than flying blind. Dog sweaters are easy to knit, but hard to fit. If the sweater fits funny in certain places, that pooch isn’t moving anywhere. I’m really proud of this one, I’m not even going to try and be modest here, this one was a damn clever idea, (though not at all original!) and I’m patting myself on the back for an execution well done.
BURBERRY!! It kills me. I think he looks just fabulous in it too. The story is my sister loves the high end goods. For Louie’s birthday, she wanted to get him a burberry collar. So when we picked the pooches up from the kennel they stay at whenever my entire family goes away, we took them over to the Burberry store, located at a mall near there. It was great. The dogs had fun, (natural born shoppers!) and they liked all the attention. Lou got fit for his collar, and they had the right size, but while we were there, we also tried the real Burberry dog sweater on him. He did not like it. He did not move. It was a turtle neck,(!?) a dog turtle neck. While my sister is crazy enough to buy him an expensive collar, she’s not near crazy enough to spend that much on a sweater he won’t move in. Burberry or not. Then I got the fantastic idea to knit him one. I am all about the custom made goods. I was planning a sweater for him for his birthday anyways, so it just worked out well. I scrapped my original sweater idea, and went for it.
I used galway again, just like for the first sweater I knit him. I like the yarn, of course, and they just happened to have the colors I needed. Technically this does fit into knitting from my stash, as I already had the red, and as I kind of remember in the general guidelines, it’s perfectly acceptable to buy yarn to finish a project. Hee.
This time around I used the basic pattern from Dogs in Knits, which is by far the best book for dog sweaters I’ve come across, and believe me I flipped through so many of them! It’s much more toned down, and the sweaters are realistic to knit, and actually have a dog wear. So I used that pattern, and worked in the plaid, after sketching a general placement on some graph paper. I did end up ripping the body once, to make the stripes wider, so that when the vertical lines intersect, the crossover would be square. I’m crazy and picky like that. You might notice that the vertical lines are not knit in. You’d be right there. I did give a swatch a go, knitting it a combo of intasia/fairisle, to see if I could knit in all the paid. Well it looked like crap. The fabric pulled, the stitches were funny, and I was convinced that no amount of blocking would fix the general crappiness. So I ended up duplicate stitching myself silly. Seriously. I did it all on Sunday, as I was supposed to leave Monday morning, and I had to have it done. That’s over 700 stitches duplicated stitched over. 700, people. If that’s not love for my sister and her pooch, I don’t know what is. Doesn’t he look great, though? Regal, even?
One thing among some others, that I did change, was I didn’t knit the ribbing around the armholes. Lou’s got some thick dog arms, and lots of fluffy fur, so I just left them out. That’s what I did the first time, and it works great. Hopefully he’ll get some wear out of it before things really start to warm up.
In other knitting, I’ve got a couplafew inches on the whiskey sweaters hood, but I’ve hit a huge speedbump in the length of the thing. It will require some major surgery to fix. I’m determined. This sweater will not win. I will win!! I’ll save that for another post, though.
omg, that is the freaking BEST ever!! love it!
I want a little dog with a Burberry sweater!
That is fantastic! I’m not a fan of either Burberry or dog sweaters (since my dog is 80 lbs.), but this one just works so well!
too funny. too cute.
Absolutely the stylin’ist dog on the block!!
He looks so cute in the beautiful sweater. Great job!
Not only is the sweater fantastic, but the photos! You take the loveliest photos of this dog.
I can’t believe you did all those duplicate stitches.
I just designed something with a similar combination of intarsia and stranded. Let’s hope others don’t have such trouble with it!
Awesome. You deserve a medal for all those duplicate stitches.
My first dog was named Louie…love the name love the sweater. It is fantastic!
Ok. WOW. Regal indeed!! That pup obviously loves getting his picture taken…
I love that sweater and the puppy is adorable too 🙂
Fantastic. You are so talented!
This is just FANTASTIC! Very gorgeous on Lou who looks handsome as ever.
What a fantastic sweater! I know what you mean about the fit- I have my dog’s measurements written down (is that creepy?) because I know I can rarely go by the pattern specifications. What a classy dog!
Lou is gorgeous, and the jumper aint half cute either 😉 well done its FAB!
What a beautiful sweater! That is one lucky dog!! You really nailed that Burberry pattern.
I knit a sweater for our Mo (who is lacking in the tummy fur department) with some Steelers intarsia before last football season. Perhaps this year he will be more proud to wear it?
http://ajknitting.blogspot.com/2006/11/here-we-go-steelers-here-we-mo.html
That is adorable!!!!
Eeeee! i love it i love it! and the dog’s got this very knowing, “Yes it’s a Burberry” look all over his little face.
Oh, that is just TOO CUTE. I *heart* Lou and his sweater!
It looks so great, lady! That Louie, he’s the cutest.
“OMG!!!!!
are you kidding me?!!!
I don’t think Louie could get any cute and then you knit him this awesome sweater?! and duplicate stitching–i’m going to have to give it a try now!
augh, he is just so cute–he knows that his picture is being taken, doesn’t he?! my family dog Oscar (a Lhasa Apso, Shih Tzu’s cousin) is like that too!
He’s such a ham for the camera.
one more time–sooooo CUTE!!! and way to go on the doggy sweater!
Man this is the cutest thing Evah! He does look regal! You did a fantastic job on this sweater! You should sell his picture or something. Maybe he can be added to one of those snazy calendars:)
adorable! i literally gasped out loud when i saw it.
I love it! You think they have a size for my horse? He’d be stylin’ out in the field.
Lou looks so handsome in that sweater! Very cute.
Wowwww. That’s some serious work for that sweater – and totally worth it! He looks great! (It cracks me up how human his face is, even with all that fur.)
Hi! I stumbled upon your blog and just had to tell you that your photos are gorgeous. Mind sharing with me what camera equipment you are using? 🙂
That is a beautiful sweater!
How clever! I love it!
Burberry dog sweater. Fabulous, dahlink! *waves martini glass about*
That is a beautiful sweater! Lou is rockin’ the Burberry, and he knows it too.
It really suits him. How fab.
Beautiful sweater–absolutely darling and well-fitted to your doggie. Good knitting!
I cannot even express the awesomeness that is this sweater. You are a GENIUS.
Awww!! SO CUTE.
I love this so much- totally worth it.
i can’t say it any better than minty: GENIUS
The sweater is adorable, but Louie is priceless – what a poser! He just reeks with charisma, and the camera loves him. Way to go Julia!