Not Draco's New Coat
Mostly I've been doing crochet rather than knitting, but I did buy a book of dog coat patterns in order to have a go at a knitted (and therefore slightly warmer), coat for Draco (for those who don't know Draco, and object to 'dressing up dogs' I should mention that he is practically bald underneath as a result of having had puppy-mange and is of a breed designed to live in stables (lots of warm straw) and hunt rats (with a very short single coat that they can't get a grip on)). He has a selection of practical fleeces and raincoats, but since I am capable of making my own...
Anyway, I started with a simple plain design - but it has certainly been a learning curve!
It was pretty obvious from early on that the neck was going to be too large (the pattern for the back and the front start with the same number of stitches), so I frogged it back and reduced the cast on for the front/underside to half for the ribbing, and did a row-by-row increase to bring the width back to his chest measurement then continued as pattern from there. Blocked the result before assembly.
Then I sewed up the sides and tried it on Draco.
Er. Yes... I think his expression says everything.
I contemplated doing another disassembly but unpicking my sewing and end-weaving would just leave me with hundreds of short lengths of yarn. And this is a pretty expensive yarn (note to self, do not try experiments in the good stuff).
So I decided to finish off the border in the grey yarn and send it off to Wood Green for their poorly puppies (should fit a Staffie puppy perfectly).
Unfortunately all the patterns in the book seem to be the same size, none of which are designed for slim, fit dogs so I'll be using it for photo-reference only in future and Draco will be measured to within an inch (or millimetre) of his life. I have purchased some acrylic purple yarn to have another go - won't be so warm, but at least it will be wearable.
Anyway, I started with a simple plain design - but it has certainly been a learning curve!
It was pretty obvious from early on that the neck was going to be too large (the pattern for the back and the front start with the same number of stitches), so I frogged it back and reduced the cast on for the front/underside to half for the ribbing, and did a row-by-row increase to bring the width back to his chest measurement then continued as pattern from there. Blocked the result before assembly.
Then I sewed up the sides and tried it on Draco.
Er. Yes... I think his expression says everything.
I contemplated doing another disassembly but unpicking my sewing and end-weaving would just leave me with hundreds of short lengths of yarn. And this is a pretty expensive yarn (note to self, do not try experiments in the good stuff).
So I decided to finish off the border in the grey yarn and send it off to Wood Green for their poorly puppies (should fit a Staffie puppy perfectly).
Unfortunately all the patterns in the book seem to be the same size, none of which are designed for slim, fit dogs so I'll be using it for photo-reference only in future and Draco will be measured to within an inch (or millimetre) of his life. I have purchased some acrylic purple yarn to have another go - won't be so warm, but at least it will be wearable.