Monday, February 25, 2008

Welcome Kitty Knits Blogtour!

Hi Cindy!

How is the winter treating you this week? I see from the MKE Journal that you're expecting more snow later today. We had a little rain on Friday and it was a bit overcast yesterday but Saturday was a beautiful day. We worked in the yard all morning, attacking the weeds that have popped up under the last few weeks of occasional rain. We are now about half an inch above normal for this point of the year. Of course that won't last, the "rainy" season is about done and it's time for warm days watching spring training, if you're into that kind of thing.

Unfortunately the beautiful weather meant lots of yard work and little time for knitting. On the way to work on Thursday I started the Felted Cat Doorknob Toy from the new Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and Their People book. I ended up stash-diving for the yarn I used for it. The purple is one of the first yarns I bought from the $3 bin at Fiber Factory. I had two skeins but ended up using only one. I had about 3 yards left at the end and used that for stuffing the head. The green is the same Moda Dea Fur Ever that I used as trim on Margi's sweater last fall. I still have a good chunk of it left so it's likely to show up here again.
For the body I ended up using 3 dpns and knitting in the round rather than doing I-cord. The 12 stitch I-cord just seemed a little bulky and the regular knitting in the round worked better. I followed the rest of the pattern as directed. Margi isn't too sure if she's excited by the whole thing. Once I got it sewn together she just looked at it. I hung it on the front door and she batted at it a little. I still need to felt it but it is pretty cute, don't you think?
Donna, the author of the book had two cats herself, so she knows what it takes to keep a cat entertained. Here she is posed with her cat Deedee, a handsome and frisky-looking kitteh if I ever saw one.

One of the other patterns in the book is a quick knit. I started, and finished the knitting portion during the Oscars last night, the Felted Catnip Toy. I made it out of the churro yarn I got down at the Phoenix Public Market. You remember, I wrote about it last September. The yarn has been isolated in plastic since it dried after the dyeing and no signs of critters chowing down on it so I think I've got that situation under control. The kool-aid dying has given it a lovely varigated pattern. I'm going to finish sewing it up and felt both items one of these evenings.
I had a couple of pictures of friends at work looking at the book and picking out patterns that might work for their critters but I forgot them on my other computer so I don't have them right now. I'll post them either later tonight or perhaps tomorrow. I made them pose for me so I'll definitely use them later.


Time to get to work. Take care and don't get stuck in a snow bank! I leave you with one last picture of Margi curled up with the new toy. A

P.S. 7:50 pm

Here are my friends at work whom I asked to pose with the book. Carrie has one cat at home but also fosters abandoned kittens.
Tracy had two cats of her own but took in a momma cat and her four babies last year. So far she's found a home for only one of them so now it looks like she has 6 cats. LuDean has just two cats and they love her new house with its upstairs and downstairs.L doesn't have any cats. She does have a giant lizard but I don't think he'd like anything hand knit; I don't think there a book out there Lizard Knits. They just don't seem to inspire knitting designs although I'm sure I could find a pattern for a knitted lizard.

2 comments:

Cindy said...

Thanks, Alene, for doing such a nice job with the blog book tour. I saw the book last week in a local book store and thought it was great. A variety of projects using various techniques, all attractively laid out and illustrated.

Donna D said...

Didn't the publisher do a great job on the layout and photos? I was really happy with the results. I especially love the little pictures of cats and the mouse. Did you spot that yet?