I like to share a range of patterns with you all, include free and paid patterns, and projects with a lot of different styles (though admittedly most of the things I share are things I would actually want to knit myself, if I had infinite time and yarn!).
In scouting around for patterns I regularly visit the websites of the big yarn companies that often produce free knitting patterns, and that’s how I found these beauties.
I think I spotted the dog pullover first, but in good, unbiased fashion, there’s also a cat pullover pattern.
Both of them are worked flat in pieces with worsted weight yarn, using the intarsia method of colorwork.
If you don’t know what intarsia is, it’s a method of colorwork where you’re knitting blocks of color, each with their own ball of yarn. So for instance when you start the bottom of the cat’s face you’d have a ball of yarn for your main sweater color, then one for the light gray, one dark gray, another light gray and another one for the background color. You twist the threads as you go so there aren’t gaps in your knitting. It’s really easy once you try it, but yarn management can be an issue.
Anyway, the sweaters both come in seven sizes, with a chest measurement ranging from 42 to 65 inches (it’s clearly meant to be worn with some positive ease). The cat sweater as shown uses five colors, while the dog uses six. It would be easy to make the cat sweater look more like your favorite feline by changing the colors. For the dog you could look for other dog breeds done in knitting charts if you want to alter it to look more like yours.
Both the dog and the cat are available as free downloads from Lion Brand, or you can buy a kit with all the yarn you need.
[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]
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