Leopard Print Dog Sweater Knitting Pattern

I don’t now and have never had a dog, but I know that dog people sometimes like to knit up sweaters and the like for their canine companions.

If you were going to knit a dog a sweater, this vibrant leopard dog sweater from Lion Brand is a cool choice. With a leopard print on the back and stripes across the chest, this one is as fun to knit as it will be for your dog to wear.

It uses a washable, anti-pilling yarn, which is great for the hard use and multiple washings this sweet sweater is likely to get. It’s available is three sizes as a kit, or you can download the free pattern from Lion Brand.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn.]

Looking for more things to hand-make and DIY for your dog? Check out some of our favorite things to make for dogs. Owning a dog can be very expensive and not only does making your own dog beds, coats and toys seem like fun, it is also a great way to save money on pet supplies too. One of our puppy’s favorite homemade dog toys is a soda bottle ½ filled with rice. It is noisy, it flips and spins and has a spout for him to grab.

Looking for more sewing patterns for your fur baby doggies? Check out these sewing patterns over on Etsy.

No Sew Easy Dog Bed – Quick and easy to make, you will want this soft and fluffy dog bed for every room, if you are looking for more DIY dog beds check out these articles for making your own dog beds.

DIY Dog Shampoo for sensitive skin – Even doggies have allergies and this recipe is for dogs with sensitive skin.

Recycled TShirt – Dogs Tugga Toy This project was featured in Moderndog magazine and was so fun to make, the best part was ripping up all the old t-shirts. Such a great way to recycle.

Recycled Dog Collar – Pickup old shirts from thrift stores and make fun collars in different colors and sizes. Make sure to measure your dog’s neck before heading out so you know what size to shirt to buy.

No Sew Dog Wrap – Made from old human track pants, very affordable to make.

Peppermint Dog Soap – Stinky dogs are gone, peppermint is soothing and antibacterial too.

Dry Pet Shampoo – Sometimes they haven’t even dried from their bath before they are dirty again, this shampoo helps to brush out the grime.

Dog Cakes – Perfect for dog parties and doggie friend playdates

Dog Biscuits– 16 yummy dog treats you can make yourself at home in the kitchen.

Looking for pet supplies, toys, food, or gift ideas? Check these out.

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations.

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind.

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca.

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl.

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions.

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic).

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only.

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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