Edie asked me a few weeks ago if I would knit a sweater for Betsy the Beagle.  I was game and so one recent evening found the three of us humans spending quality time sorting through dog sweater patterns on Ravelry. Of course the one we liked the most is, of course, one of the more complicated patterns.  And being that I’m not the fastest of knitters, I knew it could be a while before Betsy got herself a sweater.

So yesterday morning, when we got up and it was 25 degrees out there, I realized that I could probably sew Betsy a jacket out of a pile of old sweaters I have specifically for the purpose of cutting up and reusing, much faster and easier than knitting her a sweater. And because it’s December and I have a to-do list a mile long, I decided that indeed, I should sew her a jacket that very afternoon. And so I did.

I have to admit, it was very satisfying to start and finish a project in an afternoon. I’ve been in a bit of a creative funk this fall – I realize the general air surrounding us has not been overly cheery in recent weeks, but this funk has been lingering since at least last summer. As funks go, this particular one has been rather deep and long, but I know that eventually, if you hang in there, they tend to go away. I attribute at least part of my inability to shake said funk because of my focus this fall on my little family – getting the dog acclimated to living with us and getting our girl acclimated to high school. Even though we got Betsy in late June, we really didn’t have a regular schedule for her to adapt to until school started in late August. And that school schedule, being a brand new one for Edie,  meant changes to our routines around the house. So there was a lot of adapting, which doesn’t always leave room for creating. Such is life.

I’ve seen that creativity creeping back in and I’ve tried to make time for it. But to be honest, between work and life, it’s hard to find that time. So yesterday, despite the fact that I’ve got a stack of Christmas presents cut out, ready to be sewn up and a few knitting projects on the needles, I decided to just sit down and sew my dog a jacket.

I cut up a cashmere sweater I’d gotten out of a free pile somewhere along the way. The linen for the belt was from the stash – I bought the pattern and the bias tape. I tweaked the pattern as I went along and I’m rather pleased with the results. It’s a bit wonky in places to be sure, but then, it’s a dog jacket that I whipped up out of a discarded cashmere sweater in an afternoon that helped get the creative juices following again. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be.