Beemer's Blue Sweater

The sweater for Beemer , aka Mr. B, is done!!! He even agreed to model it for us on a 90 degree day! The pattern, wurstwarmer by Pamela Wynne of Flint Knits was easy and fast to knit. As with human sweaters, sometimes a pattern has to be adjusted for a perfect fit and I will have to make a couple of quick adjustment to the pattern to get it fitting him like a second skin. However, even the first thing my husband said when he saw it was, "it fits him perfect like it was made for a dachshund"!

The express reason I knitted it in the first place was that store bought clothing for pets were not made with the dachshund in mind. As discussed in an earlier post, their long body, deep chest and short legs make them perfect candidate for a custom made sweater.

As for the adjustments, the sweater is a little snug over the back between the sleeve openings and I think that the decreases at the belly are a little to "steep" for Beemer. His pattern size is medium. On the first row of the sleeve opening, the pattern says to leave 34 stitches over the back between the sleeve openings and 26 between the sleeves on the belly. On his next sweater, I will move the openings closer together on the belly side with 38 stitches over the back and 22 stitches between the sleeve openings on the belly side. I am hoping that this will eliminate the pulling that you see on the pictures above.  I also plan to knit the belly decreases more gradually. The decreases are done in every other row and I think that I will do them every third row.

Well, let's see. . . I think Mr. would look dashing in red! Don't you?

Happy knitting!