Pet Charity and Patterns

Our furry friends are the sweetest things ever. They love and support us and all they want is to be loved in return. Unfortunately too many are left without homes, no one to give them their love, to be able to claim as their human.

I do not want to even think about the ones who are abused. I will cry. Besides a quick link to the ASPCA, who save animals. Please, if you can, donate. Even one time donation of a dollar is better then nothing. https://secure.aspca.org/donate/ps-gn-p2?ms=MP_PMK_Googlebrand-T4&initialms=MP_PMK_Googlebrand-T4&pcode=WPSE9XXGOGN2PK00014&lpcode=WPSE9XXGOGN1PK00014&test&ds_rl=1066461&gclid=CjwKCAjw1_PqBRBIEiwA71rmtd2_bk_eX3bfZzzXSniD3nrGlnnFmNUYJM-zniuzlB-_R4EfT4DcIxoCiBEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Now onto what this blog is about, crafting for charity, this in particular one is for animal charities.

For me, my favorite charity for this is Comfort for Critters. https://comfortforcritters.org/

The entire idea is to make a blanket that will be given to an animal in a shelter, when they are adopted it will follow them to their forever home giving them something familiar as well. The charity accepts any size blanket, but as a general rule a blanket for a kitten or small dog will be 12x12, for a medium dog 24x24 and for a big dog 36x36 blanket, but like previously stated they will accept any blanket.

If you like to sew or quilt more that is accepted as well, not just knit or crochet, but I'm not a quilter and though I sew it is mostly just mending instead of creating, I do like to embroider but that doesn't really match much into what this blog is about so it doesn't matter for here.

There is a list of shelters that if you live close to a shelter you can drop it off of, I have one on the way to my job so I can always stop when I head home from work. If not you can send it to their offices and they will send it out to shelters, if you have extra supplies like yarn that you no longer want they will bring them to nursing homes and other knit or crochet circles and give it to them to make the blankets.

I did make some of my own patterns for blankets but I will tell you they are very simple and don't really count as new patterns but I will tell you my go to projects for it. But first here is the patterns from Comfort for Critters themselves.

https://comfortforcritters.org/easy-patterns

Now what I do is very easy but makes very cute blankets in my opinion. I use the yarn Bernat Pet Blanket yarn, this is a size 5 if you don't want to or can't use that particular yarn you can find something that will match this.. For me one skein will make one small blanket-for a cat or small dog-and almost be enough left over to make a blanket for a medium size dog.

For the cat/small dog blanket it is only knitting pattern and for the medium and large dog pattern will both be in crochet. But go ahead hit the link above, as they have amazing patterns for knitting and crochet and other crafts that are much more creative then mine, but there is something to be said for easy, simple ones. For the knitting if you've ever made Grandma's Favorite ( https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grandmothers-favorite) it is similar and the same basic idea.

Cat/Small Dog Blanket

Size 5 Yarn
8 mm Knitting Needles

Cast on 4 stitches

Knit 2, yarn over, and knit the rest of the stitches. Repeat until you have 58 stitches on the needle.

Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, and knit the rest of the stitches. Repeat until you have 4 stitches on the needle.

Bind off and weave in the ends.

I made this blanket all in one color, and while I like the look of this I think it would also look nice in stockinette stitch (which would be knit one row then the next row pearl, and repeat switching each row) but would be too much a hassle for me on average, same for changing the colors along the blanket.

Medium Dog Blanket

Size 5 Yarn
6.5 mm Crochet Hook

Make a granny square up to 14 rows.

I made this blanket all in one color but you can use less yarn switching out every row or two into a different color. Using math I'd suggest either 1, 2 or 7 rows (which would just be the middle and last row) to make it feel more planned out.

Large Dog Blanket

Size 5 Yarn
6.5 mm Crochet Hook

Make a granny square up to 20 rows.

Yes, I did the exact same pattern for the medium and large dog blanket only doing six extra rows for the large dog blanket. For this in particular I like to do two rows in the main color and a single row in a secondary color, so I can count my rows by threes up to 18 and then finish off with the main color. I have three colors in the Bernat Pet Blanket Teal, Rose, and Denim Jean. I like the idea of matching all three together. Like for instance the Rose being the main color and then Teal being the secondary color, for Denim Jean being the main color Rose being the secondary color and finally when Teal is the main color, Denim Jean be the secondary color. But you can do anything and have fun with it.

I know my patterns aren't that nice but hopefully there is enough information here for everyone. Happy crafting!

One more announcement. This is in memory of my one kitten, Cleopatra. I had two but I lost my lovely Cleo. She's been very sickely having a heart murmur and extreme allergies. Our vet prescribed medicine, but did tell us that we'd only have about four or five years for her. We ended up with four and a half after he said that.

She got a blood clot and had to be put down, she was in so much pain and there was no saving her. Our pets are precious, they have our hearts from the moment we hold them and long after they leave this world.