little sheep. big sheep.: knitting in japanese

we had a cold day. enough to get me back into the knitting mood. our newest stray joined us this summer at the height of the summer heat. it took almost two months of driving around the blocks of our new office looking for him, each one of us with a can of dog food in our trunk in the event that we ran across him.

we learned that he was smart enough not to run the streets in the afternoon so it took early mornings to find him and get him fed. at some point he decided we weren’t all that bad and i snagged him. he underwent surgery right after the snatch and grab, because while he was on his own he was hit by a car and only used 3 of his four legs.

now he is on the mend and all puppy- (gosh i forgot what it takes to be the owner of a puppy)… his 100 mile per hour skinny body needed a sweater. he is kinda built like a whippet/italian greyhound mix. we think he may very well be a sicilian greyhound but whatever he is- he sure is cute, bright, clumsy and one early riser.

i decided since coming back from my trip to japan that i would knit him a japanese sweater. i have a few japanese knitting pattern books (and a few more after my visit) but i have never tried one. the pattern i found seemed perfect for him with the exception that it was a hoodie sweater (even worse it had a pom-pom on the top). after being thrown into a family with middle aged parents, 2 geriatric small dogs and one other who is deaf and sleeps morning, noon and night he has nothing better to do than play with anything he can (envelopes from the bin, wicker furniture, plastic containers… well, just about anything.) so far he has chewed through one nylon lead and on his way to chewing through two others. a pom-pom on his head would be fair game for knit destruction. besides those greyhounds are just meant to be in turtlenecks, right?

i have to admit that i guessed on the gauge, guessed on the needle size, guessed on the wool but found a website that did a good job of explaining “the reading of japanese knit charts.” this was after spending a great deal of time deciphering a crochet chart by accident. you can down load it here- it is interpreting japanese knitting patterns by marsh white.