Not a Slave to Fashion

So here is the result of round two.

I had plenty of yarn to just re-knit this, without having to unravel the shreds of the first sweater -- those shreds that didn't end up passing through Pona's digestive system, that is. I think he looks quite proud of it in this picture.

I really veered off the road with the pattern this second time around. Rather than the clever horizontal armholes that Staci originally wrote, I decided to steek a couple of vertical armholes. I crochet them before cutting (I have zero sewing skills) and then added an applied I-cord. The I-cord doesn't really stand out -- it just adds a nice sturdy edging to the armholes that stands out only ever-so-slightly. It doesn't pull on the front of his legs nearly so much as the first version did.

The other major change I made was to move the mono-raglan decreases to the center of the back. Since the armhole steeks were running vertically over 20-something rows only 16 stitches apart, I didn't think there would be room to run the decreases down the center of the chest between the armholes. So I moved the decreases to the center of the back. This did result in a very slight bump where this started, but it worked.

Now, if only he liked it.

We went on a walk this evening after work and not too far into it Pona started hanging back on his leash, which is very unlike him. He kept hunching over. I don't know if the back of the sweater reaching all the way back to the end of his tail bothered him, or if the ribbing where the sweater as switched to working in the round was chafing him. I do know that when we took it off of him, he pranced around like his normal self. That's gratitude for you.

Unlike humans, I don't think dogs should suffer for fashion. I won't make him wear it if he doesn't want to, even if he does look cute in it and it would keep his bony body from shaking during chilly walks. On the upside, I practiced some cool techniques and figured out how to alter a design on my own. And those are good things.