A Knit Dog Sweater That’s Easy to Customize

I do not know and I have not ever owned a dog, but I know that dogs sometimes get cold. Some dogs like to wear sweaters, and some humans like to dress their dogs in sweaters, regardless of the dog’s feelings about it.

If you fall into any of those camps and have ever wanted to knit your dog a sweater, the Vanilla dog sweater from Ruth Ritskes is a good place to start.

It looks like a really simple design that would be easy to customize for the exact size and preferences of your dog. It comes in three sizes but if you have your dog handy while you’re knitting it, you can easily modify the girth or the length as needed to keep your pooch comfortable and stylish.

It’s worn with leg holes for the front legs and is open around the back. I’ll bet you could add a little bit of knitting to the leg holes if you wanted to give more coverage, and you can make the body of the sweater go as far back on their body as you want it to.

And of course you can go wild with stripes, add in different textured knitting patterns, throw in their name worked in duplicate stitch…the possibilities are endless.

It’s a very easy knitting pattern if you just knit it as written, too. All you need to know is know to knit, purl, make one and knit in the round. The pattern includes photos and links to videos to make it easier for you.

You can get the free pattern as a download on Ravlery.

If you’re looking for more dog sweater patterns, check out my roundup of Halloween-themed dog sweaters (many of which could be altered to not be seasonal if you prefer).

[Photo: Ruth Ritskes]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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