Up to now I’ve only knitted scarves and cowls and made a dismal mess of my first ever human sweater, so it was with some trepidation that I started on Jessika’s pattern. First I read every single Ravelry project for this pattern, noting tips and suggestions as I figured I needed all the help I could get before I began. Two comments came up again and again: (1) a lot of knitters said that the sweater slid down their dogs and (2) many considered the increases too slow from the neck onward. So now I’m not only starting my first grown-up pattern for the first time, but I’m planning to modify it as I go along…

I had a ball… (well, 2 balls to be precise), the pattern was fairly easy to follow, and it was exciting seeing the sweater take shape.

Before I start can I urge anybody who uses this pattern to please consider donating to Jessika’s wonderful organisation, Street Dog Care. Every little helps to give the medical treatment these dogs so badly need.

Right, here are my notes and mods:

The Neck
The sweater is for my boy Gizmo, a rescue dog who is part Staffie and possibly part whippet. He has long neck, and to try and prevent the neck riding down (as others have noted) I decided on what we in the UK call a polo, or roll neck. I made it 10” long and it doubles over nicely. I cast on 62 stitches, and, ever the rebel, knit in 2x2 rib as opposed to the 1x1 that the pattern calls for. And now I know that if you’re doing 2x2 rib then you must cast on in multiples of 4, so I started over with 64 stitches. Oh, and here’s something else I learned – in order to avoid twisting stitches in the round, I cast on with a straight needle and knitted from there to a circular one, and soon discovered that my work was the wrong way round… a quick twist inside out and everything was hunky dory. (That’s English for fine and dandy.)

The Body
Immediately after the neck you start increasing the body. Well, a quick calculation (my swatch said I did 7 rows per inch) told me that if I were to increase stitches at each end of every other round then it would take far too many inches to reach the 100 ‘Final Ribcage stitches’ that I needed. So I increased every round instead, and it worked out very well.

The Legs
When it comes to the leg holes it’s a bit of guesswork deciding exactly where the dog’s legs begin - after all, there are haunches to consider… with hindsight, I wish I’d started the legs sooner. While the sweater looks fine when Gizmo is standing, I feel that he’s a little bit restricted when he’s lying on his tummy (see bottom photo, taken this year). In short, start shaping the leg holes sooner than you think.

And this may not make sense now, but when you start casting off for the leg holes, place a marker 2 stitches before you cast off the first leg hole, then place another marker 2 stitches after the second leg hole (see diagram). These markers define the belly width, and clarify Jessika’s instructions when it comes to binding off the belly area later on. Keep slipping the markers as you continue knitting.

The Belly
I kept trying the jumper on Gizmo every inch or so, and it was in danger of becoming loose where he tapered in. Broad chest, slim waist, you see. So I gradually decreased for 10 rounds and unbelievably it’s a very good fit - more by luck than judgement, I think.

The pattern tells you to bind off the belly area, but, as you’ve probably guessed, I’m an arguer. I made the tummy good and long, so that it stopped just short of Gizmo’s doghood, finishing with an inch or so of 1x1 rib. I figured that would enable me to knit a much longer back than I’ve seen in most of the projects, as I wanted it to reach right to his tail. At this point I abandoned the pattern. Truth be known, I was struggling to understand the rest of it and now that the difficult part was done I went my own sweet way…

The back
So easy… knitting straight, 6 garter stitches either end of each (stockinette) row and the final 8-10 rows in garter stitch from beginning to end of the rows.

The dog
He hates it. Just look at that tail between the legs. He’s yet to realise that Mummy knows best.