I must be too much of a pushover. Dh gave me those puppy dog eyes and poor Dora was shivering. Sooooo ... I've been roped into knitting a sweater for a cat. Think I can get her to actually wear it?

Anyway, I found this site that will generate a custom dog sweater. I inputed Dora's measurements and voila! a sweater pattern.

I am applying an ease of 5% and multiplying the chest, thigh and belly width by 1.05 to determine the widths of the main pieces. The following values are modified:

chest 18 -> 18.9 inches;
thigh 3 -> 3.15 inches;
I'm finished calculating. Here are the directions. They are custom created for your dog, dora.

General Directions & Design Ideas

The Pieces

The dog sweater is made in 6 parts. To see a general schematic and some sweater design ideas click "schematics".

TOP: The 8 sided "top" piece is the main piece. The cast on is narrow. As you knit, you will increase stitches, knit without increaseing, and then decreases towards the neck. After assembly, the cast on portion of the top will end up by the dogs rump. The cast off portion will be near the dog's neck. The total length of this piece is -0.9 inches; the total width is 12.6 inches.

BOTTOM: The "bottom" is the underside of sweater. It will cover the dog's belly. This piece is a rectangle, and it is shorter than is the top. The two side edges of the bottom "bottom" will be sewn to the "top" matching points "a"-"d" but leaving the portion between "b" and "c" unsewn to form slits. The total length of the bottom is 8 inches; the total width is 6.3 inches.

COLLAR: The collar will be a turtleneck. The directions suggest you knit it separately, and then sew it to the body. However, you can can also pick up stitches from the neck edge and knit until the collar is long enough.

LEGS: These are two little rectangles which are knit and the folded in half, matching points "c" on the two sides. These legs should be sewn to leg slits matching points "b" and "c". One of the main purposes of the legs is to keep the edges of the body from curling at the leg openings. If you knit the body in a stitch that doesn't curl, you may omit the legs. Or, if you know how to crochet, you can crochet around the edges.

WELT: The welt is a long narrow strip of ribbing that is applied to hip edge of the sweater. It is decorative, but also prevents the body from curling. It is best to knit this in a non-curling stitch like ribbing or garterstitch. Th welt be knitted separately and sewn to the body, or you can pick up stitches from the body. The total length of this piece is 1 inches.

You pick your main pattern. This could be fairisle, stockinette, DJ or nearly anything you like. But for your dog's comfort, select a stretchy stitch. For a good fit, the collar and legs should be knitted in a stitch that draws in like ribbing.

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Construction and Assembly Order

Knit top and bottom. Mattress stitch top to bottom on one side matching points "a-d", but leaving slits between "b" and "c".

Knit collar. Attach to the front using your preferred method.

Knit welt. Attach to rump portion of sweater.

Mattress stitch top to bottom at the remaining side, once again leaving the slit.

Knit the legs. Cast off. Fold over matching the sides and sew sides to form a tube.

Sew the cast off edge of the legs to the slit openings.

Find your dog; dress him and take him for a walk.

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Note: The directions specify both rows and the length of the piece whenever you need to shape or cast off. Handknitters generally use length information. Machine knitters prefer the row information. Don't worry about the extra information.

Top

Cast on 28 stitches and begin to knit using the main stitch pattern. (width is 6.3 inches) When cast on is complete: if you are hand knitting, knit 1 or 2 rows, ending with knit sidefacing, if you are knitting with a japanese machine, make 2 carriage passes ending with carriage on the right (COR), if you are knitting with a Passap, the cast on took a few passes, so you are ready to shape.

Now, begin shaping: increase at both sides as follows:
increase 16 stitches every two rows 0 times then increase 15 stitches every two rows 1 times
There are now 58 stitches and the width is 12.6 inches. The row count is -34. (Length is -8.9 inches). Set a row marker; I will call this marker "d". Knit without increasing to row -24. (Length is -6.4 inches). Set a marker; I will call this marker point "c". This is where the leg slit starts. Knit to row -16. (Length is -4.4 inches.) Set another marker; I will call this marker "b". (The slit opening for the dogs legs will be between markers "b" and "c".) The chest shaping also starts here. Decrease 11 stitches over 12 rows on both outside edges as follows:
decrease 1 stitches every two rows 1 times then decrease 2 stitches every two rows 5 times
Knit the remaining 36 stitches without shaping to row -2. (Length is -0.9 inches) Cast off the all stitches. This row could be marked "a".

Bottom

Cast on 30 stitches and begin to knit using the main pattern. (width is 6.3 inches) Knit to row 10. Set a marker c. (This will be the one end of the slit for the dog legs.) Knit to row 18. Set another marker b. (The slit opening for the dogs legs will be between markers "b" and "c".) Knit straight to row count 32. (Length is 8 inches) Cast off all stitches. Hang a marker to indicate this row is point "a".

Collar

Method 1: Cast on 86 stitches and begin to knit in the welt pattern-- which should be some sort of ribbing. Knit in rib until row count 4 (Length is 1 in inches.) Bind off and sew turtleneck to sweater body. Method 2: This is useful for handknitters. Attach top to bottom at one shoulder. Pick up 86 stitches around neckline. Knit until row count 4 (Length is 1 in inches.) Cast off.

Legs

Knit two.

Cast on 12 stitches and knit using the welt stitch pattern. This should be some sort of ribbing. The width is twice the leg slit opening. Knit in rib until row count 8. (Length is 2 inches.) Cast off. Fold in half matching sides "c".

Welt

Make one.

Cast on (or pick up on rump end of sweater) 142 stitches in the welt stitch pattern. This should be some sort of ribbing. (This will be attached to the rump of the sweater which is 31.7 inches long.) Knit to row count 4. (length is 1 inches.) Bind off and sew to rump edge of dog sweater.

Now all I have to do is knit it up.