Knit a Fishy Sweater for Your Dog

Little dogs are adorable in or out of clothes, but when the weather starts to get cooler your little friend might actually need an extra layer of warmth for walks or time spent outside.

Luckily, we’re knitters, so we can fashion a wardrobe for a tiny dog in no time.

If you happen to have a little pooch who needs some extra protection, allow me to suggest stitching up the Fish Frenzy dog sweater by Sandy Mills, aka New Age Knitting.

This sweater comes in four sizes, for puppies with a chest circumference of 10 to 18 inches (that’s 25.5 to 45.7 cm) and is covered with adorable fish in different colors. It calls for worsted weight yarn so you can use all your leftovers to make a super colorful school of fish. Choose washable yarn if you can for ease in caring for the finished garment.

Parts of the sweater are worked flat while others are worked in the round. Because of that and all of the colorwork I’d say this is an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working in the round and doing stranded colorwork you should be totally fine.

If you wanted to make the project a little easier (or you just want to make multiple versions of dog sweaters using the same pattern) you could work the body in plain stripes or even in a solid color to make this a really quick and useful knitting project for all the little doggies in your life.

You can get your copy of the pattern on Etsy.

Have you ever wanted to knit a dog? Check out our collection of knitting patterns to make dogs (not to be confused with knitting patterns that make something that dogs can use, like this one). And if you like cats we’ve got cat knitting patterns, too!

[Photo: New Age Knitting]

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When I first started knitting again after a long absence from the craft (which has now been almost 25 years ago!) I really didn’t like garter stitch that much. I found it super boring, somehow even more boring than knitting stockinette stitch in the round, even though it’s exactly the same thing.

Over the years I’ve softened my opinion, and even grown to like garter stitch. There’s nothing wrong with being plain, and actually the texture of garter stitch is more interesting than stockinette.

Also there are fun things you can do with garter stitch to make it more interesting if you want to, such as adding stripes, working on the bias, or doing fun effects to change the look.

That’s the way with the Bernat Twist My Way Garter Knit Blanket. Using combinations of casting on and binding off creates what they call a Swiss cheese effect along two sides of the blanket. This is a lot of fun in the self-striping ombre yarn they chose for the pattern, but it would also be fun in a solid color or making your own stripes.

Despite the dramatic effect, this pattern is rated easy. It’s worked from side to side (if you consider the “cheesy” edges the top and bottom) and has an eight-row repeat that involves binding off and then casting on again to make the holes. They’re kind of like giant buttonholes.

Once you get the hang of it it’s a pretty easy repeat to remember, and it will be smooth knitting as big as you want to make it.

You can download this pattern from the Yarnspirations website for free, or you can buy a kit direct from them that includes the yarn you need (and knitting needles if you need those, too). Bernat Sport Ombre Twist, which is what is used in the pattern, comes in 12 self patterning colors and is a DK weight acrylic yarn.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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