My current knitting project is making goat coats. I have 2 pregnant does, and the babies are expected in the Spring. Since Spring in NJ can be 70 degrees or 20 degrees, I wanted to be prepared. Baby goats can get frost bite rather easily, from what I've read, and I wanted to have something warm to keep the babies in. I searched some goat coat pictures to see how they are applied and created a pattern.
Secret: I can't for the life of me read knitting patterns, at all. I just make up the shape i want and knit it to the size specifications rather than counting the stitches.
This is the product I found
I like how it wraps under the belly and around the front of the chest. I'm not going to use Velcro though; I'm going to substitute Velcro for toggle buttons.
The picture above helped me to visualize how to turn the product into a pattern. The trickiest part for my mind to wrap around was the neck. It has to be opposite of how I would make a neck hole for a human, the front is higher, with a dip in the back.
Using Excel, I made the pattern pictured on the left. The green areas signify roughly where I anticipate placing the toggle buttons.
I've begun my first goat coat on a loom. They don't have to be too big since they will be for newborn goats. I will keep you posted on outcomes and updates!
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