Knitting and Bulldogges: Like Oil and Water?

When Dorothy arrived in my home, a healthy, active 10 week-old puppy, I had to put a few of my hobbies on hold, primarily reading and knitting.  I soon resumed the reading, as it was easy enough to reach over stealthily while Dorothy was snoozing on my lap and grab a book and begin to read.  Knitting on the other hand, is not a stealthy activity.  By the time I fetched the knitting and opened the pattern book and started moving the needles, Dorothy, who by then would have one eye open, thought my activity looked like too much fun to ignore.  So I thought it best to just not make any knitting attempts for a few months.

When I got Dorothy, I was almost finished with Rowan's "Dominika" sweater, and had knitted all but one sleeve.  Here's a picture of what it should look like if being worn by a beautiful model:

It's pretty, right?  It's a little more of a poncho shape than I would normally wear, but I really liked the colors and the designs and thought it would be fun to knit, which it was.

In October, practically a year after I started knitting the sweater (sigh), I finally finished it and sewed it all together.  Here are some pictures:

Not too bad!  The sweater is closed somewhat awkwardly with a kilt pin, which I found and ordered from a seller on etsy (it has a beetle on it!).  So once that arrives, I can wear my handiwork.

Now that Dorothy is 11 months old, she is better at ignoring my knitting, so I've been able to do a little more of it on the weekends.  The problem is that if I am sitting on the couch, she likes to lie across my lap, causing me to have to bend my elbows and knit right under my chin--not very comfortable or swift a method.

If I'm lucky, I can get Dorothy to just lie next to me, like so:

As you can see in the picture above, however, "next to me" soon ended up being "with my thigh as her pillow".  Note how she is covering my pattern book with one jowl, and snoring on my ball of yarn.

Of course, I can --and do-- often revert to Plan B, which is to chuck a bully stick her way and have the couch to myself while she chews it.

Soon I shall have to knit a sweater for Dorothy!  I'm thinking perhaps something like this:

But I always could knit her a dinosaur sweater like I did to my poor Tulip.  Here is Dorothy as a puppy wearing Tulip's fine handknit sweater:

Hmmmm [steeples fingers], how can I most embarrass my Dorothy?.....