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Who doesn’t love a sweet and cozy doggo? Nobody can deny that keeping your pet warm and comfortable during the winter months is extremely important, no matter if they’re a dog, cat, chicken or any animal inbetween.
As Autumn and Winter are rapidly approaching – I’m dreaming of Halloween and hot chocolate right about now – it’s always a good idea to make sure that you have lots of handmade accessories to ensure your dog stays warm during those colder months. One of the nicest ways of doing this is whipping up a dog snood or cowl, a great way of using up scraps of Super Bulky yarn and practicing basic stitches like knitting, purling and interesting ribbed textures. I have two dogs: Bob (yes, she’s a girl called Bob), a VERY BIG 38 kg English Golden Retriever – chonkus maximus – and Squid (or Skooky), a GSD/Wolfdog/Swedish Vallhund mix who absolutely hates any kind of dog accessories. Because of this Bob will be doing the modelling for us today, something she really doesn’t mind because she’s not only super calm and happy to help out, but she also knows that she’s really pretty!
As you can imagine, Skooky lasted all of five seconds trying it on…
So, what’s cool about this pattern? This fun project is very quick to make, even for confident beginner knitters, and makes a great gift. Also, if you don’t feel like you have the time to make a dog jacket, a snood or dog cowl can be a great alternative. I love this design because it’s really easy to customize and change up the sizing so it can be made to fit any dog, plus the satisfying ribbing means that it will be nice and snug. You can also pull it down so it covers your dog’s neck, or pull it upwards so it acts like a hood. So cute! Also, many dogs find these “hoodie”-style cowls to be quite calming to wear, so it can even be used as an anti-anxiety aid during grooming sessions or even during thunderstorms or fireworks (ugh), much like the incredible Happy Hoodie made popular by my fave dog groomer, The Girl with the Dogs! You’ll definitely love making these little cowls and can also switch up the colours to match your dogs collars, leads and other accessories.
Anyway on to the pattern…
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
YARN: 125 m (136 yds) (approx) Super Bulky 100% cotton t-shirt or ribbon yarn. For my sample I used Hobbii Friends Ribbon in the shade Misty Violet (67). This amount of yarn will be enough for a snood to fit a M/L dog. The quantity of yarn used will depend on the size of the dog.
GAUGE: 11 stitches, 17 rounds to 10cm/4″.
NEEDLES: 8.0 mm and 9.0 mm circular needles in a length that fits your stitches comfortably.
NOTIONS & TOOLS: Scissors, a stitch marker, a tape measure.
STITCHES: Knit stitch (k), knit through the back loop (kbl) purl stitch (p), long tail cast on (co) and bind off (bo), stitch swap or invisible join.
Knitting though the back loop (k tbl) twists the knit stitches and gives extra texture and depth, as well as giving a neater, more stable structure.
CONSTRUCTION: Working from the bottom up we will cast on our stitches on our 7.0 mm needles, work a few rounds of 4×4 ribbing and then change to our larger needles. Then we will work a few rounds of plain knitting before working some final rounds of 1×1 ribbing and binding off. The stretchy 1×1 ribbed section is the top of the snood (that will fit over the dog’s head).
ADJUSTING THE SIZE OF THE SNOOD: The snood is worked on a multiple of eight stitches, so it’s quite easy to adjust the size so it fits your dog comfortably by simply adding or removing eight stitches at a time. To adjust the length, add or remove rows during the ‘neck’ section until it reaches the length you like.
NOTES: Before you cast on and keeping an eye on gauge, take some time to measure your dog around his or her neck and cast on an amount of stitches (working to a multiple of eight) so it fits comfortably and isn’t too tight. For dogs with larger necks or a lot of skin (such as Bulldogs, English Golden Retrievers, Mastiffs…) it’s always best to cast on with eight extra stitches to give some positive ease. Don’t worry too much about the tightness of the snood around the dog’s head as the 1×1 ribbing section will keep it on nice and securely.
Avoid using 100% wool yarn as this snood will probably need to be washed regularly if your dog is anything like mine! Cotton ribbon yarn is the ideal choice as it is stretchy, hard-wearing and quick to work up. Yu can also throw it in the laundry regularly. Acrylic yarn can get sweaty and uncomfortable, but if blended with cotton or wool is could be a good choice. However, I’d strongly recommend using a breathable yarn like cotton ribbon over anything else.
PATTERN:
Using your 7.0 mm needles, cast on a multiple of eight using the long tail method, plus one extra stitch (I cast on 57 stitches) and join using the stitch swap method, therefore removing one stitch. This cast on row counts as the first round. Check that your stitches are not twisted and place a stitch marker (or use the yarn tail) to indicate the beginning of the round. You should now have a multiple of eight stitches on your needles, in my case 56. This number of stitches will make a snood that fits most M/L dogs. My dog Bob is large with a thick neck and this number of stitches fits her comfortably, but do check the ‘Notes‘ section for info on adjusting the snood size so it fits your doggo. Change to the 8.0 mm needles at this point.
BOTTOM (4X4 RIBBING):
Rds 2 – 7: *k4 tbl, p4, repeat to end.
NECK:
Rds 8 – 26: k every st to end. I worked 19 rds of plain knit stitch but this may vary depending on your measurements.
TOP (1X1 RIBBING):
Rds 26 – 34: *k1 tbl, p1, repeat to end.
Bo all stitches and give the cute snood to your favourite doggo.
Thank you for your support and I hope you loved making this pattern. If you did, please tag me on Instagram and share your photos with me. I’d love to see your own dog snoods!
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