an odd dog

miss opal has always been gender challenged. since we've had her we make it a point to buy her pink accessories (collar, lead etc).

she does not know she looks the least bit masculine nor does she know that she is really very overweight.

both became obstacles for me when i decided to knit her a sweater. of course i went out and bought beautiful bright pink wool. i picked my pattern- this simple lion brand “need for tweed” knit dog sweater.

besides the model is a boston too.

here is where the problems begin. the sweater is knit in two pieces, the top and the bottom. after knitting it i think it would be just as easy to knit it in the round and skip the dreadful seaming. i was pretty close to completing the top when the totally obvious was pointed out to me…. a plump round dog in a thick pink sweater is going to look something like a barnyard animal. (dare i say pig?)

oh my.

i ripped out a large enough amount to add a pattern- i was thinking stripes but the “what not to wear” tv series told me that stripes make you look wider than you are. so i opted for charlie brown zig zag in green and white.

so far so good

the top was completed and i was moving on to the bottom. the shape of the bottom piece is rather like a wine bottle. it is wide where the belly is and takes in decreases as you get closer to the neck.

i did my homework and worked out that miss opal had the body size of a medium dog and the neck size of an extra large dog. my final belly piece looked like a reversal of the original. but to my surprise it worked.

a few other mods.. i also added a ribbed collar so it would be easy to put on and take off and short sleeves because i thought it would look better.

i think she likes it.