Last year we adopted a puppy from one of our local shelters. I made him a little sweater as he was a tiny little thing.
A year has past and he needs a big-boy sweater. This is the perfect opportunity for a stranded colorwork stash buster. No dogs? Hats and scarves are also great for using up leftover odds and ends.
The plan was to make a sweater featuring dog bones, beginning with a stranded colorwork chart. For charting I recommend Stitch Fiddle online charting software. They have the entire range of Shetland colors from both Jamieson's of Shetland and J & S. Stitch Fiddle also has a free version to help you get started designing.
In this case I began with a black and white chart for the pattern because I had no idea what colors I wanted to use yet. My first attempt at a dog bone looked more like a small hand weight. It happens. My second attempt was a recognizable dog bone treat.
Time to get knitting!
Looking through my stash, I found two partial skeins of "grouse", which would be enough for collar and trim. Benji has long legs. Instead of a pullover, this year's version is a cardi which buttons up the chest. He's not a big dog, and I didn't want to break up the pattern across the back. If he were larger I probably would have put the buttons (or a zipper) along the back. The collar was worked flat as quickly as possible, then I cast on 10 stitches for the steek and joined to work in the round for the remainder of the sweater.
Next came the fun part. I dumped all my yarn over the kitchen table and sorted it roughly into color families.
The idea was to try different colors in Benji's sweater to gain an understanding of which combinations worked well together. Sometimes I needed to rip out. Sometimes I had too much contrast, and other times not enough. That's just part of the process.
For the first chart repeat I chose Benji's favorite colors, naturally. Once I worked the first dog bone, I realized I'd chosen a dark solid for the bone and more muted, heathered tones for the background. From then on I decided all the bones would be worked in solid colors, and I'd use mostly mixed or heathered colors otherwise.
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As the work progressed I began repeating color families, for balance. These families emerged as blue-greens, oranges, and muted red-violets, forming a loose triad of tertiary colors on the color wheel similar to the bottom right triad shown below.
Final Construction
Once the body was finished, I added the button band and armhole trim before steeking. Trim stitches are picked up along the first column of stitches, which is easy to see because they're all in the foreground color.
After finishing all of the trim in a 1x1 ribbing, I was ready to steek.
At the beginning of this article I mentioned using 10 stitches for steeking. These stitches, knit in a checkerboard (aka 'lice') pattern, are turned under as facings. The first and last columns of stitches before the steeking section are always knit in the foreground color to make them easier to see when picking up stitches. Conveniently, colors are switched out in the middle of this checkerboard so that there are no ends to weave in once the steek is cut.
This youtube video shows the steeking process:
Watching this sweater come together reminded me how much freedom lives inside our leftover skeins. What began as a practical “big-boy sweater” became a playful exploration of color and contrast, one dog bone at a time. There’s something especially satisfying about letting the stash lead the way, allowing unexpected combinations to emerge and evolve as the knitting grows.
Whether you’re knitting for a four-legged friend or casting on for hats, mittens, or scarves, stranded colorwork is a wonderful way to turn small amounts of yarn into something full of personality. It’s low pressure, endlessly creative, and often leads to color pairings you might never have planned on paper.
Benji now has a sweater as spirited as he is, and I have a little lighter stash. Not a bad outcome for a project that started with a jumble of yarn and a simple chart.
Happy knitting! (And don’t forget to knit for the ones who keep you company while you do. 🐶)
