Flying Poodles

Dancer’s New Sweater

I finished Dancer’s new sweater. It’s the same yarn as Elly’s, a nice big bulky yarn
in pretty colors.

I learned from making Elly’s sweater, so I made this one a good bit smaller and simpler. After I did a gauge swatch to determine the number of stitches per inch (3 spi, on size 11 needles), I cast on 44 stitches (I needed a number divisible by four, or it would have been 45) for the 15 inches of Dancer’s neck measurement, using circular needles, which I joined into a circle. Then I did 2×2 ribbing until it was the length from behind her ears to the top of her shoulders.

Then I doubled the number of stitches, and continued in 2×2 rib until I reached the top of her legs. Then I bound off two three-inch sections for the legs, with only 2 inches in between them (which I put on a stitch holder for now). I knit back and forth for 3 inches, then knit the in-between-legs part, then added back the stitches, picked back up the in-between-bit, and ended up back in a circle of 88 stitches.

Then I started knitting two together at the middle of the underside (the middle of the in-between legs part) every round until I got down 44 stitches. Then I stopped decreasing and started knitting back and forth instead of circular until I got to a nice length just in front of the hips; the knitting back and forth created a nice belly slit that makes it go over her head easily. I knit a few rows in 1×1 rib, then bound off.

I went back and used a smaller needle (#10) to pick up 34 stitches around each leg hole, and knit 6 rows in 1×1 rib, then bound off.

I took the curly girlies to the dog park this morning. They got very excited about digging a hole and I just kept walking, because no one else was there. I was way over on the other side of the field when I saw Dancer running and clearly looking for me. When I called her, she galloped the entire way to me, which was about 1/4 mile. Elly followed, but was not nearly so fast.  After we got home, I gave them a quick rinse to get the mud off, fed them a good hot breakfast–veggies and chicken liver–and they’ve been sleeping ever since.