Friday, May 11, 2007

Doggy Knits?

As soon as our small community found out about James, we were given congratulations, advice and loans of books and DVDs.

Along with the Jon Katz books I've mentioned, we have a loan of Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan - The Complete First Season, the gist of which seems to be "Walk your dog on a short lead and be the boss."

I was also given a loan of the book Doggy Knits: Over 20 Coat Designs for Handsome Hounds And Perfect Pooches.

I have never been a dress-your-dog-up person, although I have knit a dog coat for a chihuahua I know (though I 've never seen her wearing my creation....).

Are dog coats just too weird? Why does a dog need a coat? Doesn't it already have a coat?

Is there any practical reason behind this--or are these just fun to knit?

Out of all the designs in the book, there is only one that I sort-of fancy, were I to knit my pooch some gear: the denim-style coat knit out of rugged denim yarn that would last a long while and soften and fade with repeated washing. (Although denim yarn is a bitch to knit with--it stains your hands blue and chafes.)

The more practical thing I should get into, given my long-haired, shedding breed of dog, is knitting with dog hair. The problem here is not just that I don't know how to spin but also that when I sat next to Karen, the dog-hair spinner/knitter, I couldn't stop sneezing and coughing.

Ahchoo!

2 comments:

Kel said...

our dog has some coats, tshirts and hats, mostly given to him as gifts by relatives

he doesn't mind wearing coats that simply strap under his tummy, but hates the ones that have sleeves for his legs

we have some photos of him and his wardrobe at www.blog-a-dog.blogspot

Stephanie said...

I always think of the dog wardrobe items as things that short haired dogs wear well, but Mia has a double coat, and she's not amenable to having too much strapped to her. She does have a blankie though.