The Bunny Sweater Knitting Pattern that’s Actually for Cats

I don’t often share knitting patterns for pets, mostly because I don’t think of it. I don’t have a dog, and I’ve never knit for my cats except a knit couch and a little cat bed I made on a knitting machine, both of which were pretty much ignored.

I have shared some pet bed knitting patterns, and both hats and sweaters for dogs.

But I don’t think I’ve shared a pattern for a cat sweater, until now.

This one is the Bunny sweater by Sarah Zhou, so named because her cat is named Bunny, of course.

It’s a made to measure pattern because cats come in all shapes and sizes, and you can also use any yarn you like and whatever gauge you are getting with that yarn.

The design is knit from the bottom up, that is, from the tail side up toward the head. Pairs of decreases shape the body as you work toward the armholes, which are made by binding off a few stitches. Then the belly and the back are worked flat, then joined and worked in the round for the chest part.

There are some design options in the pattern, from the look of the photos they include using a contrasting color for the edging, working a scalloped edging, maybe a foldover collar? But of course you can add your own embellishments, stripes, make it in team colors or for a Halloween costume. I’m sure they’re quick to knit so you can make a bunch if you have a cat who is willing to submit to such torture.

Bunny looks like a very good and mostly tolerant girl; I don’t think either of my cats would be willing to wear a sweater. But if you make one (the pattern is available on Ravelry) and successfully get your cat to wear it I would love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sarah Zhou]

Patty Lyons is known for teaching knitters the how and the why of knitting skills. Her Knitting Bag of Tricks helped knitters learn how stitches work, why we do things the way we do and what might be better alternatives.

Patty Lyons’ Knitting ER aims to do the same with a particular focus on fixing mistakes in your knitting both before and after you bind off. She has deliberately made mistakes (and tons of accidental ones as well) to teach herself the best methods for fixing everything from a misplaced increase and a dropped edge stitch to faulty cable turns, messed up lace and brioche knitting disasters, to name a few.

The book starts with a foundation of understanding how stitches work, how to read them, and the basic methods we use for fixing mistakes in knitting: frogging (ripping out several rows at a time), tinking (removing stitches across a row one stitch at a time) and dropping a stitch or several stitches on purpose to fix a mistake and ladder it back up.

It talks about the most basic mistakes like accidental yarn overs and slipped stitches and how to fix them, as well as tips for using lifelines or slipping a smaller needle into your project to hold the stitches before you rip.

Then we move on to more complicated fixes like picking up a dropped edge stitch, fixing a dropped cast on stitch, removing the twist from a circular knitting project (which you can only do after the first round is knit; this is an ER not a miracle station), fixing ladders in a project, tinking when you’re worked increases or decreases (or what to do when you forgot to add them) and fixing dropped stitches at the edges or short rows.

After that is the specialist’s office, which covers fix-it techniques you might not ever need, or only rarely, but it’s nice to have a place you can find the solution if you ever do need it. We’re talking fixing mistakes in a lace pattern, dealing with miscrossed cables (and counting rows in the cable so you when when it’s the right time to work it again), colorwork issues and brioche blunders. Some of these diagrams are sure to give you pause if you’ve never done something like dropping down a single cable for 20 rows and reknitting it, but again, it’s nice to know you can do those things if you need to.

Even if your project is done it’s not too late for the doctor to do some good. You’ll also learn how to use duplicate stitch to make knit and purl stitches on the surface of a knitting project, which allows you to do things like fake a decrease you forgot, add a purl you missed in a textured stitch pattern, even fix mistakes in lace, stranded knitting, brioche and cables.

There’s also tips for dealing with too tight cast ons and bind offs and floppy necklines, pieces knit too long or too short and very detailed instructions for grafting in probably any situation you might encounter, as well as approaches to major surgery.

A lot in these later chapters is kind of mind blowing, and if you’re not getting it from drawings, there are QR codes to videos that cover a lot of the problems and allow you to see the fixes in another way. And there are cute illustrations on the theme of knitting ER from Franklin Habit, too!

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to fix mistakes, minor or major, without having to rip out all of your knitting, this is the book you’ll want to have on your shelf for ready reference and reassurance throughout your knitting career.

About the book: 208 pages, paperback, published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Have you read?

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