Dottie's puppy sweater

Back when I first started blogging (oh so long ago) I wrote primarily about knitting and crochet. How things change 🙃. I think my last post on fiber crafts was back in 2019 when I made some legwarmers for my then-baby daughter. (She turns four next month.)

2022 was a tough year for the four-legged members of our household. We lost Kittybear (the tuxedo cat I adopted back in my masters days at BGSU) in February, and Lil (my toy poodle step-dog and lifelong companion of my husband) in September. It took us a long time to warm up to the thought of bringing a new pet into the household, but in December we learned about a litter of rescued lab/border collie puppies and took the plunge on a young pup.

Enter Dottie, a high-energy land shark 🦈 pup. 

Also enter a random cold snap around Christmas. 

So I dug out my favorite dog sweater pattern by Sole Salvo for Purl Soho and knit up a sweater for her to wear when she goes outside.

Being the land shark that she is, right now she mainly tries to chew it off. Because I had a feeling her land shark tendencies might impact the integrity of the sweater, and because she's growing so fast that her time wearing it would be limited, I went with a tough, washable, low price-point yarn to knit it up. Fortunately I had some Berroco Vintage worsted (referral link) in my stash and used that. I think the color is Sour Cherry.

I knit the XS size and she's already a bit too big for it. The body could be a bit longer, but the arms and yoke fit fine. By next winter we're guessing she'll be pushing 30-40 lbs, so I'd imagine she'll need to wear a size M (or maybe even a L). The fun thing about mixed/unknown breed rescues is you just don't know how they'll grow until they do.

(For what it's worth, we have sent in an Embark DNA test for her and I'm happy to share the results of that if people are interested.)

I hope to share more puppy posts and crafting posts this year and into the future. Stay tuned!