Saturday, August 23, 2008

The PTBNL....Revealed

Finally, I get to talk about the PTBNL. Yes I know. What is all the hype about a silly little knitted sweater for my dog? Let me tell a little back story:

Back when I first started knitting, I thumbed through every pattern book I could find, trying to decide what kind of patterns I'd like to take on. I'm a pretty practical gal, and at the time we were having to buy new dog sweaters every month or so. We had two growing puppies and it was wicked cold outside. A dog sweater! I kept finding myself checking out dog sweaters. Unfortunately, in my pre-Ravelry days, the only patterns I could find were crochet, or detailed knitted ones. Something I could not take on being a newbie knitter.

I learned to knit about a year ago, and knitted a bad scarf and the checkered baby blanket. Then came the great tomato tragedy of 2007. I sliced off the end of one of my fingers with a tomato slicer. Ok so there was nothing great or tragic about it, and after 8 months it has healed up nicely, but "tomato slicer incident" just didn't have the same ring to it. I still have limited feeling in the tip of my finger, but it no longer hurts or hinders my knitting. I guess technically you could say I have only been knitting for a few months, if you add my actual time with the needles together. But I digress, let's get back to the pink poochie sweater:

I sucked terribly in the beginning, and could never imagine myself actually being able to make a dog sweater. (or anything practical for that matter!) I guess you could say it has been my goal from the start to complete a dog sweater. It has been the one thing that has stuck in my head thinking that if I complete it, I can call myself a knitter.

I know it is silly, but I feel like today I tackled a big hurdle, and made it!

Now on to the pattern:
I found this insanely easy Talking Tails Easy Dog Sweater. Had I found this pattern last year I probably would have made it from the start. Thank you Ravelry! I used Caron Simply Soft in Watermelon, about half a skein. It was an extra I had purchased by accident for the Wild Stripes Blanket. I want to tackle it again at some point with a heavier weight yarn in a different color. One downfall of loving baby blankets, you end up with a lot of bright colors. I am really glad I found this pattern. It fits Gidget perfectly with no modifications, and it will be a good way to attempt cable knitting, knitting with colors, and following a pattern chart. Gidget is going to have a larger wardrobe than her owner by the time I'm done.

3 comments:

Courtney said...

Damn it fits....It looks good and she looks like she likes it. You can really she her mohawk here can't ya.

Amber said...

Court,
Actually, she HATES it! Hates it I tell you! I had to take 100 just to get the two where she looked semi-happy. In the last photo she finally reserved herself to her fate and laid down. Then she closed her eyes I guess to avoid the flash. The rest of the photos looked like this, this, and this But it's nothing personal to the sweater I made, just sweaters in general.

Courtney said...

It looks really good though. You did a good job. In the first photo/link you get a diff. angle of it. I'm impressed, you did a great job. Oh and by the way I really need a new word other than great. I feel like I say that waaay too much, so get on that right away, thanks.