Inspiration
Stripes to the Rescue!
In knitting and in life, I’m not indecisive. I may get it wrong, or have to adjust my course, or even rip it all back and start over—but I’m generally marching toward the next thing that captures my imagination. I seldom find myself in the wilderness.
I started our holiday vacation week in my typical mood of excitement about future knitting. I had a giant ziploc full of Atlas in a bunch of shades, plus some Pebble as a main color—and a plan to cast on my 4 Letter Sweater. It’s a big sweater, so I’d have plenty of fireside knitting, present-opening knitting, and sweet roll-eating knitting.
But then: an obstacle. Due to poor planning, I only had 4 skeins of Pebble, not enough of the main color for the whole sweater. What if I couldn’t get a dye lot match for the other 6-7 skeins I’d need? That would be a bummer.
But I am resilient! Like a cheerful Roomba, I bounced off this obstacle and headed in another direction: I could knit something else while waiting for more Pebble.
But: what to cast on with all that Atlas? What was I going to do with my one wild, precious week off?
I started scrolling patterns on Ravelry. Every time I had one in my sights, there was a problem that stopped me from casting on. This kind of indecision never happens to me, so I was not emotionally equipped to deal with it.
People: I flailed. I kept knitting halfheartedly on a Sophie Scarf using leftovers and I kept dragging that giant ziploc of Atlas in the car, on the Amtrak train, in my new, Merry Christmas-to-me Hulken roll-y bag…and still no inspiration as to what to knit.
Salvation
By New Year’s Day, much as I love Sophie’s Scarf, I was craving that new project serotonin. I started winding my Atlas and manifesting that a great idea would come.
And it did. I thought about my niece’s dog George, who had outgrown the sweater I made last year, when she was much smaller. The Lucky Dog Sweater is one of my favorite designs, for man or beast. It’s a satisfying, streamlined knit.
Photo: Sole Salvo
I also thought about Jen Geigley’s latest design, the 1999 Pullover. Six-row stripes in shades of MDK’s own Atlas yarn that take me straight back to the eve of Y2K, when the Gap was selling a similar pullover.
Photo: Jen Geigley
Just like that, the two ideas merged. On January 2, I cast on for the large size Lucky Dog Sweater and started striping my head off. I’m back, baby!
This is what I call a good time. Although knitting a sweater for long-bodied, chesty Georgie is a lot different from knitting one for my featherweight terrier, the project flew. I knit on it all the way from Maine to Rhode Island and back home to New York, happy as Larry. Saved!
Georgie stopped by yesterday for a fitting.
Almost there—and the fit will be perfect after blocking, with a little more length in the back and room in the bust. I like how that Merlot stripe illustrates so clearly how the short rows work to expand the chest and shoulder while keeping the back of the sweater snug. Knitting is so cool!
The little sleeve kills me dead. To think I ever was tempted to skip the sleeves on this pattern!
If you find yourself in a trough or slough or any other kind of knitting depression, cast on some stripes—they’re magic.
Note for the curious: The log cabin blanket is an old friend from 2011. The pattern, Fussy Cuts, is out of print, but it’s such a basic log cabin that it’s easy to wing it with MDK Field Guide No. 4: Log Cabin.
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Lucky dog! The coolest sweater ever!
How fun! What a lucky doggo! And such a perfect fit!
Pray tell what method you used to get such beautiful joyless wide stripes.
The round starts at the 2 x 2 ribbing so the jog just melts into that. Another magical moment of this knit for me.
This is a BRILLIANT unvention to avoid jogs while knitting stripes in the round! Now to incorporate this in a HUMAN sweater design…
Or maybe Jen Geigley’s 1999 Sweater accomplishes similar jogless stripes by doing color change at raglan seam?
This. Is. Adorable! What a lucky dog
I LOVE stripes, and have multiple striped hand knit sweaters as proof. Stripes keep me engaged – the opportunity to start the next color is never too far away. I also tend to fall hard over the photos of the colors in a new yarn line (e.g., MDK’s “Jane”) and don’t want to limit myself to choosing only one – I love the beauty of how they look together. The only drawback is that my stash never has a sweater quantity of yarn for a lovely single color sweater, and there are plenty of those, too. Love your stripey sweater for a very lucky dog – gorgeous!
Stripes are definitely magic! As is Jen’s 1999 Sweater pattern – it flies off the needles!
This is a perfect sweater for George, so cute!! You are right, the sleeves are a must.
I don’t have a dog, but am obsessed with a good bag, so immediately looked up your Hulken bag. What size did you get? Comments?
The small is plenty big for me. I got the medium for my daughter who has to haul her laundry to a basement laundry room. I’ve seen the large in person and I feel it’s really for people who are vending at a craft fair. It’s really big and great if you need that much room.
Love, love, love!!!
George looks proud of his new sweater. I knit a fussy cuts throw, too and I love it!
Happy New Year to all MDKers — staff and fans alike! Looking forward to Nash Yarn Fest! It’s getting closer every day.
“Bouncing off obstacles like a cheerful roomba”
Such a perfect simile! It made me smile. I will remember it.
So will I. Kay, you’ve just shown me the way to respond to setbacks – and not just in my knitting career.
Yes!!
What a cooperative model. Very nice doggy sweater.
That sleeve absolutely kills me dead as well!
Lol!
I am, indeed, finding myself in a knitting “trough or slough”, but I’m not sure stripes are my immediate answer. I do admit, however, to having used stripes SO often to resolve my knitting quandries!
Running short on yarn? Add a few stripes or do a bit of colour blocking (SO on trend!). I’ve used stripes at waist of top down sweaters, at the chest of bottom up sweaters & in the ribbing at cuffs & bands just to stretch my yarn chicken to a win!
Need to mix 2 different dye lots? Throw in some stripes to separate the 2 (if you do multiples stripes you can use the anti-pooling technique to blend the 2 dye lots in an intermediating stripe)!
But my current knitting “trough or slough” is a direct result of our attempt to get moved from Cambridge to Ottawa (~1.5 hours west of Toronto to ~5 hours east of Toronto) and all of the various and sundry fallouts. Husbands (we do love them, don’t we? Don’t we???) seem so often to want to start, not with “their own”, but with “ours”. I watched my Dad do this to my Mom & often wondered how she could continue to put up with that. Here I am answering my own question.
Mine started packing (to him packing is throw everything within reach into 1st box within reach, label minimally, close, repeat) with things that would NOT have been my 1st choice. I am a much more thoroughly organized packer/sorter/labeler. I have yet to find some of the things that others “packed” for me 2 moves previous… Those early boxes he’s packed are stacked into and over what was, once upon a time, MY knitting space (well, more accurately, the sight line between MY knitting space and the TV).
Then, extended family threw mutliple unplanned emergencies at us and he & I were the only ones in a position to help out. Time delays… financial overloads… And I was the only one in a position to earn more money (by working more hours) to cover the extra family needs.
The result of additional hours of hard working was… no energy remaining at the end of a day to do any more than grab some groceries, walk & feed the animals, collapse.
Sleep, rise. repeat…
Add in a complicating burden of a WIP not-of-my-own-choosing that I owe to a nephew & I am stuck in the mud in the bottom of that “trough or slough”.
I am hopeful that I’ll be able to join in on the “Bang Out a Sweater”, at least peripherally, as I’m seeing it as my motivation to GET THAT SWEATER DONE so I can go back to knitting for joy rather than remaining mired in this “knitting as a reminder of my lack of control in my life” situation. And yes, I did interrupt THAT SWEATER to do a tiny little joy project (a baby sweater) butall the above complications delayed THAT one so much that… the intended recipient has already outgrown it. No worries! There are always more babies and a new one has already arrived!
I will be back!!
I will…
We WILL get moved (we HAVE to).
This too shall pass.
But sadly, stripes cannot solve ALL the problems.
We do love them, but I can totally see my husband doing the same thing. You WILL get through this! And if you decide not to bang out a sweater after all, at least make something fun just for you and call it self care.
Georgie is the cutest best stripey pup in all the city! What an amazing project – Atlas stripes are the very best. Honored to have inspired this adorableness in the tiniest way.
Now I have to knit one of those as I have a Sadie that looks exactly like Georgie! So cute
Our 2 Chihuahua mix puppies (a brother and sister pair) need sweaters in this freezing wind. I’ve been debating on making this pattern for them but I’m wondering about using non-superwash wool for dogs, especially since they’re so small. Neither is over 9 pounds. That means they’re closer to the ground – read mud and dirty snow. How does Atlas behave in such conditions?
Hi Karen,
My wee Olive (9 pounds of sheer crankiness) wears sweaters indoors and out in the winter. I rarely if ever wash them, as they don’t need it. I avoid superwash except for socks but agree that an active dog like Georgie (or Olive in her wild youth) will probably get a sweater dirty. I know it sounds crazy but I just don’t mind handwashing sweaters, for man or beast. Atlas reacts so nicely to being washed in cold water and air dried. But I’m sure superwash would be best for a sweater that needs frequent cleaning.
Love love
Weren’t you worried about making Olive jealous?
She’s getting one too! The stripeyness is too cute not to make her one.
Nice dogs sweaters. I knitted a sweater for my daschund Foster, who liked to run away with it in his mouth; he has a fondness for soft things. In other words he chewed it up! I saw those sweaters you knitted and will probably commit myself to
knit another on for him, probably the striped on as I have a lot of scrap yarn.
Oh dear! Georgie likes to grab my yarn when I’m knitting—pandemonium ensues as she doesn’t give it up easily. Good exercise for both of us….
I’m contemplating a sweater for someone else’s Maltipoo (about 10 pounds, I think). But I wonder how easy it is to get a sweater with sleeves on the intended wearer. She’ll step into her leash harness, but I’m not sure about an enclosed neck and sleeves.
It’s all up to the personality of the dog! Olive is never too happy about things going over her head or getting her paws through holes, but it’s pretty clear she enjoys a cozy sweater once it’s on.
Definitely looking in to the doggie sweater, so cool! But the hair covering the back of what I assume is a lovely striped sweater pattern, I have to ask, as always… why????
I picked that photo because I love the vibe and the person whose hair it is. There are plenty of informative photos on the Ravelry pattern page that the link goes to.
Adorable sweater! Love the sleeve detail.
I so appreciate your sense of humor!