As promised, a free knit sweater pattern for your extra small dog.
……She’s so cute and warm and sleepy from all the modeling……
For those of you new to my blog (thats everyone but me) Darby is my adorable 3lb 1oz chihuahua who spends most of her time asleep on my lap and is the owner of an ever increasing sweater collection. Now that it is starting to rain and get colder in the Pacific Northwest she is more that happy to wear a sweater or two.
As promised to my blog reader, I’ve rewritten Darby’s sweater pattern and (hopefully) corrected any errors. This time, it has a cable on the back, ribbing at the top and bottom (to prevent rolling and give it a nice stretch) and shaping along the center, between the legs so it is fitted all the way along the body. I am working on a new pattern and trying some different methods of shaping the see if I can get an even nicer finished look. I apologize in advance for the awful harvest gold color, it was a stash-busting opportunity for me.
Lion brand Woolease
Size 8 double pointed needles
I hate sewing edges, so whenever possible, I will knit in the round. Naturally, I make a lot of hats. This sweater will start out at 24 inches, increasing for the chest area and then adding leg holes. I have added a cable along the back. If you don’t want to do that, just knit all the way across each row and do the increases and decreases the same. It may come out a little looser though.
Cast on 24 sts loosely, divide equally over 3 needles, 8 sts each needle, join together (this will be the bottom center, between the legs area)
Do a k2, p2 rib for 2 inches
Begin increases for chest
Switch to straight stitch
kfb of first stitch, k7, p1, k6, p1, k7, kfb of last stitch (26 sts)
Kfb, k 8, p1,k6, p1, k8, kfb, (28 sts)
Kfb, k9, p1, k6, p1, k9, kfb (30)
Kfb, k10, p1, k6, p1, k10, kfb (32)
Kfb, k 11, p1, k6, p1, k11, kfb (34)
Kfb, k12, p1, do a cable crossover here, (pick up the 1st 3 sts to be knitted and put on cable needle, k the next 3 sts and then knit the 3 sts on the cable needle), p1, k12, kfb (36)
Kfb, k13, p1,k6, p1, k13, kfb (38)
Kfb, K14, p1, k6, p1, k14, kfb (40)
Making leg holes
Kfb, k3, bind off 7, k to end of needle, p1, k6, p1 (center needle) k6, bind off 7, k2, kfb
Just to make sure I’ve explained this right, you will have 4 sts, 7 bound off and 6 more sts on 1st needle, 8 sts on 2nd needle, and 6 sts, 7 bound off, and 4 sts on last needle for a total of 28
Kfb, k 3, cast on 7 (I do this by making a backwards loop on my needle for each cast on st.), k6, p1, k6, p1, k6, c/o 7, k3, kfb (44)
Kfb, k 17, p1, k6, p1, k17, kfb (46)
K19, p1, make cable, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, make cable, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
K19, p1, k6, p1, k19
SSK, k17, p1, k6, p1, k17, sl1, k1, psso (44)
K18, p1, k6, p1, k18
K18, p1, k6, p1, k18
K18, p1, make cable, p1, k18
K18, p1, k6, p1, k18
K18, p1, k6, p1, k18
Ssk, k16, p1, k6, p1, k16, sl 1, k1, psso. (42)
K17, p1, k6, p1, k17
K17, p1, k6, p1, k17
K17, p1, make cable, p1, k17
K17, p1, k6, p1, k17
K17, p1, k6, p1, k17
Ssk, k15, p1, k6, p1, k15, slip 1, k1, psso (40)
K2, p2 ribbing for 1 inch, bind off loosely.
Sleeves
Pick up the 14 stitches around the sleeve hole plus an extra by grabbing one of the stitches in between the bound off rows for 16 sts total. Knit for 8 rows and bind off loosely.
Finishing
Sew in all loose threads. (I hate this part)
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Lian Morton said,
March 29, 2008 at 11:47 am
What is Kfb?
squelchbaker said,
April 2, 2008 at 4:34 am
Kfb means knit into front and back of stitch.
Great pattern!
dabblebabble said,
May 7, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hi!! I am so glad you posted this pattern. Look forward to making it soon.
julie
Kris B said,
August 26, 2008 at 11:13 am
I just made this pattern last night for our new little chihuahua, 3 mth old “Juniper”. I used self striping yarn and it is REALLY cute! Thanks so much for the pattern. I live in Montana so i know I will be making her a bunch of these!!!
Deb said,
September 17, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Hi!
I just started working on this sweater pattern for my friend’s 4 1/2 lbs. Chihuahua. The pup has a 10-in. neck. I don’t think that the CO sts of 24 is going to be big enough or loose enough to get his head through.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Deb
Velvet said,
September 29, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Cute pattern! My chihuahua unfortunately is 8 lbs so I have to do some fudging the numbers thing to make this one fit her
September said,
October 5, 2008 at 9:59 am
what is b/o?
and are you ment to have 3 needles? i am confused!!!
autumnblossomknits said,
October 5, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi September, I can’t seem to e-mail you your answers, so here is the e-mail I sent you, hopefully you’ll pop back on here so you can see the answers.
Hi September,
Ok, the sweater is knit in the round on three double pointed needles (like this: http://knitting-and.com/wiki/Knitting_With_Double_Pointed_Needles ) instead of being flat and sewn up afterward. If you have a very small circular needles I’m sure you could use that or 2 circular needles at once Like this: http://www.az.com/~andrade/knit/twocirculars.html or the magic loop method (which I haven’t tried) like this: http://knitting-and.com/wiki/Magic_Loop
You can see why i might prefer knitting with the double pointed needles, it looks like the easiest out of the three, but everyone has their own prefence and many find the other methods comfortable.
B/O means to bind off your stitches, you might just say cast off instead: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/casting-off
Hope it all helps!
Autumn
Cindy said,
October 9, 2008 at 4:58 am
Can’t wait to try this pattern my M-I-L just adopted a 6 week old toy poodle in the 2lb range and I think this will be perfect. My other patterns work for my 8lb min pin (petite size) but that’s still too big so today I hit google and hit gold with your site right away!
Your Chi baby Darby is very very cute!
Paula said,
October 18, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I really would love a new sweater for my chihuahua this winter! and this looks like the perfect project! could you tell me how many pounds is your chihuahua? mine is about 5lbs so I am not sure if this will fit him maybe I have to change it a bit..
also what is ssk and psso?
thank you so much ! great pattern and your chi is soooo cute!!! >.<
G. said,
November 12, 2008 at 9:26 am
These are great patterns! I’ve been looking for Tiny Dog patterns, and these are the best yet.
TY!
June Bryant said,
January 25, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I want to knit a dog coat for a two pound eight week old chihauhau ……..any chance for a pattern would be very helpful.
June Bryant
Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada
Mitzie said,
April 10, 2009 at 12:37 am
Just like you, I hate to sew in ends. I have adapted a pattern to knit in the round rather than in 2 parts. Thanks for this pattern; hope to try it soon, perhaps w/o the cable.
Deborah said,
September 2, 2009 at 4:24 am
I love this but my Zoe is 5.6 pounds – would you help me with how to make it fit – I guess I could figure it out with the guage but if you can help I would b appreciative.
Your baby is adorable!
thanks,
Debbie
5 lb Single Cable Dog Sweater « autumnblossomknits said,
October 20, 2009 at 3:31 pm
[...] Continuing with the increases as follows. on each of the next 9 rows kfb of the 3rd stitch from the beginning and the 3rd stitch from the end. At the same time, on row 5 and row 10 your going to do a 2×2 cable cross over. The instructions for this are on the original pattern page here. [...]