Yarn Cats

This is a very delayed post. First due to sheer laziness after finishing homework and then an emergency room trip (cook a meal together, they said, it’ll be a cute date they said). Nevertheless, I have finally had a spare minute.

If you’re anything like me you have an affinity for felines and knitting. If not, maybe you like one or the other? Anyway, one might wonder if fiber cats act the same as real cats. I have had two around recently. One as left for his forever home but, the other is staying with me. I can conclusively say that they will:

Play with your yarn.

Knock stuff off tables for no reason.

Spend all day watching the birds outside.

Get cozy in your wips.

Love up on your clean laundry (and show all kinds of cat butt)

Eat your plants

And of course, if there is a box to be sat in…

They will sit in it!

These two kitties are Mintten the Kitten (Roly Poly Cats by: Nima Shimizu) and Jiji (Jiji the Cat by: Louise Walker).

Head and Shoulders, Tail and Ears

J was away this weekend for lifeguard training so I felt fully justified in turning into a hermit and modding Jij’s ears and tail to my satisfaction. So what did I do?

First, I combined the front and back pieces into one. I cast on 32 stitches and placed sixteen one needle and and sixteen on the other in color a.

Then I modified and combined the ear as follows:

Round 1 (N1) K4a, K8b, K4a (N2) K16a
Repeat Round one for 11 more rounds 

Round 13 (N1) K2a k2toga k4b k2toga k2a (N1) k2a k2toga k8a k2toga k2a

Round 14 (N1) k4a k6b k4a (N2) k14a

Round 15 (N1) K2a K2toga k6b K2toga k2a (N2) k2a k2toga k6a k2toga k2a
Round 16 (N1) k4a k4b k4a (N2) k12a
Round 17 (N1) k2a k2toga k4b k2toga k2a (N2) k2a k2toga k4a k2toga k2a

Round 18 (N1) k4a k2b k4a (N2) k10a
Round 19 (N1) k2a k2toga k1b k2toga k2a (N2) k2a k2toga k2 k2toga k2a

*Work only in color a from now on*

Round 20 (N1) k8 (N2) k8
Round 21 (N1) k2 k2tog k2tog k2 (N2) k2 k2tog k2tog k2
Round 22 (N1) k6 (N2) k6
Round 23 (N1) k1 k2tog k2tog k1 (N2) k1 k2tog k2tog k1

Round 24 (N1) k4 (N2) k4
Then, with the remaining eight stitches (four on each needle) kitchner stitch the top together.

Now sew the ears onto the top, having the inner edges touching in the center of the head.

Then next thing I did was add the tail.

Instead of knitting a long skinny tube and sewing it to Jij’s butt I picked up twelve stitches from  from his behind and knitted off of that, stuffing it as I went. Then I decreased to create the end.

Overall I’m really happy with how my mods turned out, except that I totally did not follow my own directions and the ears are not the same length. I’m thinking about unpicking the seam and reknitting the decreases.