My current project is knitting dog coats for various dog rescue places. OK, the worst of the cold weather has now passed, but they can use them for raising funds if the dogs in residence don't need them!

There are a few free patterns lurking around the web, so here's some links if anyone is interested:

http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/pets.php
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5324.asp

The best patterns I've seen (sadly not free!) are entitled A Dog's Life and Another Dog's Life by Patons. Hard to get in this country, but they occasionally pop up on ebay. Includes a pattern called 'dogosaurus' which is just fantastic!!!

Any other dog coat knitters out there?

Cheers, Carrie

Hi Carrie. Thanks for the links. As a cat person, I've never thought about knitting for dogs, but I must admit that it is a good idea, especially for those tiny little dogs you sometimes see shivering at the end of their leads during the Winter months. They look so miserable that I always want to pick them up and tuck them inside my coat to warm them up!

I was looking at a web site this morning about a project involving knitting jumpers for penguins. Seriously! It was for the Tasmanian Conservation Trust's work with penguins affected by oil spills. Although the project has now ended, you can read about it here (http://www.tct.org.au/jumper.htm), and here (http://www.sushiesque.com/adorablog/2005/11/how_to_knit_a_s.html) is a link to some photos of penguins in their jumpers.

I've got a little Pug dog and have started to knit her a coat but never got one finished! She grew quite quickly and there didn't seem much point. Now she is 2 and fully grown I think I'll have another go. There is a fantastic pattern for a black and white barcode dog coat - I think it's in one of the Erica Knight books. It's adorable!

Sazzat, there's a great coat pattern that would suit a pug here:

http://www.moonarts.com/blog/free_patterns/pages/pup-sweater-print.htm

Cheers, Carrie

Have any of you thought of knitting dolls clothes? :suspect:

Smothering a furry pet in an artificial coat can cause its fur to fall out :rolleyes:

Have any of you thought of knitting dolls clothes? :suspect:

Smothering a furry pet in an artificial coat can cause its fur to fall out :rolleyes:
Or alternatively covering a short-haired dog in an artificial coat in very cold weather can prevent it losing excess body heat.

Our jack russel didn't die of hypothermia, and Brude goes mountain walking in the snow without freezing to death :confused:

Out jack russel didn't die of hypothermia, and Brude goes mountain walking in the snow without freezing to death :confused:
I was thinking specifically about those little dogs, the ones you see shivering at the end of a lead in the winter. The freaky-looking tiny things. They always seem to be cold. Or perhaps they're just scared all the time. Or maybe greyhounds. They tend to have short, sleek fur and not much flesh on them. I should imagine they'd appreciate a coat of some description when it's cold.

I'm not a dog person, but from what I remember Jack Russels are sturdy little things, or am I thinking of something else? I have in mind Eddie from 'frasier'. Though having said that, there's a woman on my street who walks a dog that looks a bit like Eddie, and in the winter it's always wearing a padded coat-type thing.

Have any of you thought of knitting dolls clothes? :suspect:

Smothering a furry pet in an artificial coat can cause its fur to fall out :rolleyes:

Ah, but many dogs in rescue places don't have the luxury of central heating or lolling by the fire all day! My two mutts (who *do* have that luxury) wouldn't be seen dead in a coat - but they can help give rescue dogs an extra layer of insulation....esp the oldies.

Cheers, Carrie

Ah, but many dogs in rescue places don't have the luxury of central heating or lolling by the fire all day! My two mutts (who *do* have that luxury) wouldn't be seen dead in a coat - but they can help give rescue dogs an extra layer of insulation....esp the oldies.

Cheers, Carrie
hi carrie. hope you dont mind me jumping in here.
are you on DPer's. ?
as the ladies who do knitting for doggies in kennels are always wanting
wool/knitters/
i have the link if you want it. i was going to start a new thread on the knitting forum asking if anyone has any odd balls of wool they dont want
and if they would donate it to these ladies..
thanks cheryl

Hi I think your dog coats idea is really good. Iv'e just taken my dogs out for a walk and my lttle yorkie was shivering away in the cold. I was thinking it could be a good thing all round if some charities were involved, they could be sold in place like red cross and animal rescue, rspca shops.even some could be made for breast cancer charities if they had the logo knitted in. Think a lot of people would buy them as they wouldn't be embarrassed to have their dogs wear jumpers if people could see they were for charity. I think there are lots of good knitters out there who would get pleasure out of knitting them, and they don't take up too much wool. Everybody could benefit from this. Do you think we are allowed to use patterns for this puepose or would we have to modify them or make up our own. i suoppose if we just modify a pattern a little it would get round the copyright law.

I've got a toy poodle who doesn't need coats or jumpers if I'm being really really honest... but she has quite a few anyway! :rolleyes: Some of them Ive bought but I've just knitted her a third jumper in Noro as I gave her a very short clip just before the weather turned very cold.

She actually loves wearing clothes though it's usually too warm inside but she comes running over if she sees me picking one up for her!