Knitted Cat in Schachenmayr Baby Wool - S8642 - Downloadable PDF

Knitted Cat Pattern in Schachenmayr Baby Wool – Design S8642

This free downloadable PDF pattern from Schachenmayr provides full instructions for knitting an adorable stuffed cat toy, complete with a body, head, ears, legs, and a distinctive curling tail. The design reference is S8642, and it is worked in the lightweight, baby-soft Schachenmayr Baby Smiles Merino Wool, making it a wonderfully tactile and safe project for a handmade gift or nursery decoration. The finished toy is constructed from separately knitted pieces that are seamed and stuffed, resulting in a three-dimensional, sculptural cat figure.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a knitted stuffed cat toy, a classic amigurumi-style soft toy worked flat in individual sections. The cat features:

• A front and back body panel, each knitted separately and mirrored
• Two legs that are begun individually, placed on hold, and then joined together as part of the body construction
• A tail that is also begun separately and integrated into the body at a specific row
• A front and back head panel, again knitted as mirror images of each other
• Ears, worked as small shaped pieces with decorative triangle detailing

The body panels rise to approximately 18.5 cm in height, worked over 66 rows according to the chart, while the head panels reach approximately 11 cm in height over 40 rows. The construction method of holding stitches and joining sections mid-row gives the toy its shaped silhouette without the need for complex short-row shaping.

Construction Techniques

This pattern uses a flat knitting technique, meaning all pieces are worked back and forth in rows rather than in the round. The mirrored front and back panels are a key construction feature: the back of the body and the back of the head are each worked as the reverse of their front counterparts by reading the right-side rows from left to right and the wrong-side rows from right to left. This ensures perfect symmetry when the pieces are seamed together.

A particularly interesting technique used in this pattern is the integration of separately knitted sections. The two legs are each begun independently — the first leg with 4 cast-on stitches and the second with 3 cast-on stitches — and worked with increases and decreases as charted. After a set number of rows, the stitches of each leg are placed on hold. The legs are then joined in a single row by knitting across the held stitches of the first leg, casting on a bridging stitch, and then knitting across the second leg, followed by additional cast-on stitches. This creates a seamless join between the legs and the lower body.

The tail follows the same principle: it is cast on with 5 stitches, worked over 23 rows to reach 15 stitches through shaping, placed on hold, and then incorporated into the body by working across the tail stitches, casting on 4 stitches, and then continuing across the held body stitches — resulting in a total of 52 stitches across the full body width.

Shaping throughout the body, head, and ears is achieved through casting on and binding off stitches at both edges as indicated in the charts, rather than through paired increases and decreases within the fabric. This is a clean, chart-driven approach that gives the pieces their organic, rounded outlines.

Once all pieces are knitted, the toy is seamed and stuffed with a small amount of toy filling (Füllwatte), giving it its three-dimensional form.

Stitches Used

The entire pattern is worked in a single stitch pattern throughout all pieces:

• Stockinette stitch (glatt rechts in German): right-side rows are knitted, wrong-side rows are purled. This creates a smooth, flat fabric on the right side and is the standard base stitch for knitted toy construction, as it stuffs well and holds its shape cleanly.

Decorative elements on the body — described as dots — and the triangles inside the ears can be worked in one of two ways according to the pattern: they may be embroidered onto the finished pieces after kn