@Theo.The.Poodle.Boy as told by his mom Louisa
Knitting for my Mom goes all the way back to my brother VanGogh, her very first rescue. Although I never met him, I’ve heard this story and would like to share it with you. But first I must digress…
When my Mom, Louisa, started to look for a dog, she was looking to get a female black Great Dane. Why a Great Dane you might ask? She had never met one before, in fact she had little to no experience with dogs at all. But as it turns out, she’d experienced a stalker in her life and felt that a big dog would make her feel safe. Her friends thought that made a lot of sense and encouraged her on this journey.
On her first day out, Louisa went to her local city shelter to check out all the dogs in need of a home. Believe it or not, the shelter didn’t have any Great Dane’s, nor had they ever had a Great Dane (that they could remember). However, on her way out the door this little white dog caught her eye. My mom asked about the dog, which they said wasn’t available for adoption; that he was going to be euthanized that day, he’d been really sick and had a bad case of mange. After a lot of pleading, they let my mom adopt him, but only if she would agree to have their shelter vet treat him. A week or so later, Mom went to pick up the new dog who seemed a bit perkier, working his way back to health.
They say love is blind… so Mom’s friends were shocked when they met the little 5 Pound male poodle, who looked like he could barely hold his own. However, in Mom’s eyes, she had found her perfect guard dog!
At the time, Mom was in total shock. He looked like he’d been butchered, his hair all a mess, so she promised him from that point forward, his life would be charmed. The dog was named VanGogh because he had this kind of impressionistic look, his ears cut all uneven. Mom decided to take VG on his first shopping spree where she went looking for sweaters. She found there were very cheap sweaters, or very expensive custom type sweaters. It was at this point she decided she would learn to knit, to make him something unique and beautiful. So, into the knitting store she went where she bought some wonderful Italian wool the color of the deep sea, along with all the items necessary to knit VG his first sweater.
The first attempts were challenging, but my Mom was determined to make beautiful, unique sweaters… her first design, a Chanel inspired long sleeve pink and grey garment. While most of her designs of this era were given to rescue pups after VG died, she kept a few of which I now get to enjoy.
Almost all the sweaters and blankets my Mom knits for me are her own designs. She likes to do individual sweaters, but once a year produces a seasonal collection. She loves to accessorize my sweaters with bow ties, bandanas, pins, and/or flower crowns. Here is a spring collection she did a while back using wool yarns from @MalabrigoYarn, @LoopsFiberstudio and some handspun Egyptian cotton from Peru.
Mom is now working on a Fall Collection of wool sweaters and a blanket that she’s hoping to auction, with all proceeds going to an Animal Rescue Shelter. There’ll be more on this collection in our next post. As always, we like hearing from friends, new and old, so please drop by @theo.the.poodle.boy and say hello.
You can follow Theo on Instagram for more amazing photos and fashion!
Theo.The.Poodle.Boy
Accessories are from
@Hercabella and @Furdrobe
Photos of Theo edited by
Vasi Siedman owner, @petpixacademy