African Painted dogs are beautiful animals that live in the plains of Africa. These animals are very clever and work as a team to bring down large prey with a higher success rate than even wolves. They may be ferocious in real life, but now you can make your very own version—just a bit smaller and gentler! Once you get used to the color changing, these dogs can be knitted up fairly quickly, so you can knit yourself a whole pack of these gentle knitted versions.

This is a knitting pattern only. If you would like to have the finished animal, please see my shop on Etsy.

Finished dog measures about 6” long by 6” tall. His eyes, head stripe, and nose are all embroidered on. I like using Caron’s Simply Soft yarn for my animals, but any four-ply yarn will do. You need it in yellow, brown, and white. Size 4mm knitting needles are required, as is a yarn needle, polyester fiberfill, and pipe cleaners for the legs.

Please note that this pattern is NOT for beginners. A full understanding of stranding is necessary for making this pattern. Standing (often incorrectly called intarsia) is a technique of color changing in knitting, and requires carrying the currently unused-color yarn be carried behind the colored yarn you are using at that moment. Also, a basic understanding of loopy stitch will be useful in knitting the tail of this dog. Some good tutorials on this subject can be found online. All loopy stitches use the one-finger loop length.

If you encounter any problems with this pattern, feel free to contact me :)