A Sweater For Marley

**PLEASE if anyone has a pattern for a knitted budgie sweater, can they share it by messaging me through Postcrossing and I will forward my email address as I have a pet budgie who is slowly losing all his feathers. Your help will be greatly appreciated.**

Again a pattern challenge! But very different this time. 

Well, there are sweaters and jumpers for little penguins. And for cockatoos who are losing their feathers. But not yet for budgies. 

So, thanks to Aaron (aka mavro at Postcrossing) here is a pattern I have worked out for his budgie. His name is Marley.

I have chosen to work with a sock wool (75% wool, 25% polyamide)  and with a 4-ply yarn (50% merino, 50% silk) 

Why? I don't think that acrylic would be good if the budgie picks in it and eats the fibers. And cotton might be too heavy for a little bird. 

A budgie is a quite cylindrical bird, so there is not much shaping required. 

So a pattern with a ribbing character might be good. 

(As a reference I have used a standart toilet-paper roll - not meant disrespectful, of course!)

If you are going to knit a sweater for a budgie I strongly advise to measure it's circumference and the distance from top of the wings to the thighs. 

Avoid seams (it could be irritating for the bird) - so work in rounds. 

And knit a swatch first. :-) 

Here you can find a useful tutorial for the one-row-buttonhole.

Version 1 (4-ply, 2,5 mm DPN)

Work in the round
With 2,5 mm DPN CO 60 st (4- ply sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% polyamide)
work 8 rows 1-1 ribbing
(change yarn to sock yarn, 50% merino, 50% silk)
in the next row: knit 14 - work a 32-stitch wide one-row-buttonhole (for the wings) - knit 14
keep working in the round in any desired (stretchy) pattern
If you are as far as to the budgie’s legs (thighs) make two holes for the legs (in this case: 6 cm)
knit 6 - 8-st wide one-row-buttonhole - knit 32 - 8-st wide one-row-buttonhole - knit 6
knit one or two more rounds of ribbing and bind off.