Knit Matching Socks and Sweater with Black Cats

June 17, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I feel like I write about cats a lot, but looking back there don’t seem to me as many posts on the subject as I thought there were. (I did find a cat sweater and a pair of socks to get you started.) I am a sucker for cats in craft projects, particularly black cats, because we have a black cat and a tuxedo cat in the household.

So when I saw the Shadow Socks from The Petite Knitter, I knew I needed to add them to my to-knit list (and share them here!). The socks include two color corrugated ribbing, lots of little bits of colorwork, and a band of black cats standing in front of the moon(s) around the leg.

They’re inspired by a tuxedo cat named Shadow, who you can see in some of the photos.

They’re worked in the round from the cuff down and use a chart for the colorwork and afterthought heels. You can work them with opposite colors on the cuff, heel and toe or make them match if you’d rather.

The socks come in four sizes and the pattern coordinates with Nocturnal, a top down mock turtleneck with the same corrugated ribbing at the neckline and other edges, and the same kinds of colorwork patterns found on the socks.

The sweater calls for DK weight yarn and has a circular yoke. It comes in 10 sizes, with a chest measurement ranging from 36 to 80 inches (or 91 to 200 cm) and is meant to be worn with 4-7 inches/10-18 cm of positive ease.

Both designs use three colors of yarn. The sock pattern is available in English, Spanish and French, while the sweater pattern is in all of those languages as well as Korean.

You can purchase the sock pattern and/or the sweater pattern directly from The Petite Knitter’s website.

[Photo: The Petite Knitter]

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Learn All About Ribbing (+ a Free Pattern to Try)

It might sound weird to you, but one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns is ribbing. I find it kind of fun to knit, because it feels mechanical after a while and I don’t really have to think about it, but it makes a texture that’s more interesting than stockinette stitch.

Over at Our Daily Craft I recently wrote a giant post all about knitting ribbing that includes most of what I know on the subject. There’s a fun variation on the cable cast on that is perfect for using with ribbing, tips on how to follow the stitch pattern, binding off in pattern and more.

I even talk about everyone’s least favorite part of knitting ribbing, which is what to do when you have to increase or decrease in ribbing (short answer: it’s going to mess up your pattern but it will also be OK).

I also share a few of my favorite ribbing patterns, because of course it doesn’t have to be knit 1, purl 1 or knit 2, purl 2 all the time. (In fact my favorite is probably 3×3. I find it super fun and love the texture of the fabric.)

You can check out the post all about ribbing here.

And if you’re ready to try an allover ribbed project yourself, check out my ribbed cowl knitting pattern. This one is fun because it starts out being knit flat and ends up in the round, so it opens up over your shoulder for easy wearing but is snuggly as a turtleneck at the top.

This one uses worsted weight yarn and is pretty quick and easy to knit. It’s a good one to try if you’ve never done a project in the round because you don’t have to worry about twisting the cast on since you’ll have already knit flat for several inches before you join. (Of course you could work the whole thing flat and make a seam where you want it to be closed, but knitting in the round is easier.)

Do you have a favorite rib stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

Practice Ribbing with this Hat and Mitt Set

Have You Tried This? Ribbing with No Purling

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