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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Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

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