A Cat Sweater for Claudia-Rose

A few months ago one of my colleagues, Daniel, asked me if I’d knit a cat sweater for his sphynx Claudia-Rose. I usually avoid knitting for people who just ask out of the blue, but I’d seen pictures of Claudia-Rose before and she looked like she could do with some knitwear.

Another reason I agreed to make a cat sweater was that I’d never made one before and was unlikely to make one for either of my own fat cats. Tommy and Gus are pretty well covered in a healthy layer of fluff and fat. The novelty of making a cat sweater won me over.

I started by thinking about what the best fibre would be for cat clothing. I was worried that wool could irritate Claudia-Rose’s skin, but synthetics seemed like they could make her overheat. Cotton would have been ideal but cotton doesn’t hold its shape and I thought it would get stretched out after a few uses.

So I went back to wool, and decided on a super-soft pure wool – Empire 8ply from Morris and Sons in Imperial Blue and Dianthus.

I tried a pattern I found on Ravelry, but it didn’t go well. So many of the cat sweater patterns I found called for lots of measuring and adjustments as you worked, but I didn’t have the cat in question available for fittings. Daniel brought me one of Claudia-Rose’s shop-bought t-shirts to use as a pattern.

The first thing I learned is that cat sweaters are weird! I thought making a cat sweater would be like making baby clothes. Babies are basically tube-shaped with arms sticking out the sides. Cats “arms” don’t stick out sideways, they go down in the same direction – this is not a body shape I’d every knit for before.

After having a good look at the cat t-shirt I decided to try a top-down raglan style with the front a lot narrower than the back so the sleeves were at the front rather than the sides. I kept measuring my work against the t-shirt as I went and soon it was all done. I used less than a ball of each colour.

As a finishing touch I embroidered three white roses across the back. I was worried that they could be irritating on Claudia-Rose’s sensitive skin, so I thought I might need to unpick them if they bugged her.

As you can see, things turned out quite well.  If I made it again I’d probably make the sleeves a bit narrower and the neck slightly smaller for a neater fit. But Claudia-Rose approves and that’s the most important thing.