How to Knit a Super Dog Sweater

It's a bird, it's a dog, it's...Super Spec!
Find out how to make your own Super Dog Sweater in this blog post...

I based this sweater off of the Red Heart Dog Sweater Knitting Pattern.

Some words of advice when using this pattern.

If using cheap acrylic yarn (like I did), knit the sweater about 3 sizes smaller than normal. It stretches a lot!
If you have fancy yarn that doesn't stretch out over time, knit it one size smaller than recommended or it will still be too big.
Knit the collar as a turtle neck adding about 2-3" more in the first ribbing section.
Since you're knitting the sweater smaller and the neck longer, bind off the neck very loosely using this technique.
It doesn't tell you this until you're in the middle of the pattern, but you'll need to make a couple extra little balls of yarn to shape the leg openings. You'll have 3 balls total for the middle section (yellow) color. You'll need enough yarn in the extra two balls to knit the 1-3" for the leg openings.

Cape

I picked up 11 stitches (using a crochet hook) for the top of the cape right under the blue.
If you're not sure how to do that, you can just sew it with a seam later.
From there I did stockinette stitch
Inc 1 each side on k rows (RS)
Inc until you like the width, then continue in st st until you like the length, inserting the letter towards the center

Since his name is Spec, the "S" was appropriate for Super Spec.
I thought about doing 2 S's for Super Spec, but it was too small a space.
You can do whatever letter you like
There are tons of cross-stitch alphabet patterns out there. Here are a couple of sites where you can find them.

Using the chart is simpler than it looks. You'll do just like in cross-stitch.

At the point in the cape where you want to start the letter, find the middle stitch in the cape.
Count find the middle "stitch" in the letter you'll use
Count out from there.
For example:

if I start the "S" when there are 21 stitches in the cape (not saying you should or not start there),
the center stitch would be 11 (10 on each side of that stitch)
There are 7 stitches in the "S"
So, the 4th stitch of the "S" should be at stitch #11 in your cape.
You would knit in Red until you get to the first stitch in the "S", #8
Change to Yellow for the "S"
And back to Red for the cape, and so on
Work in k and p rows
Optional: I tacked down the bottom a little so that my other dog won't use the cape as a means to drag Spec around the house.