Kitty Knits

What's that, Queen Mum? Is there anything in there for us? Is it fun?

Why yes, my sweet little ones. We have mice and other fun things for you. Just watch while we knit these clever little creatures all in one piece, starting from the tail, working our way to the bobble ears, and on to the tip of the nose. Too clever, simply too, and each mouse takes less than an hour!



And fuzzy balls filled with roving and catnip for my good little mousers.


Now what's on the needles? A paw for the clever door hanger. It was so much easier to increase stitches switching to a smaller needle for two rows.

And here it is, with a face even the Queen Mum couldn't love! Ah, well, the next one will have whiskers to rival Hercule Poirot!

But the final test is for the kitties to determine. Bentley immediately falls in love with his new toy. Some cats are so gratifying to their people, and he surely is one such darling. Do you suppose his recent neutering experience has something to do with his fondness for balls?

What about Beamer? He's not so sure about it all. But give him a chance....

Mama Cat thinks she might want to see what this is all about. Beamer says, "Paws off, Big Mama, it's my toy!"

Did he just say what I thought I heard him say? These young kids have no respect.

Porsche thinks there may be way too much fuss over all this wool.

Little Miss Aloof is not going to be bothered by any silly old mice made of mere yarn.

Oh-ho! But just wait until everyone's back is turned. Some cats have their fun on the sly.

What about the Royal Felidore? Shouldn't he have something new and fun, too? Perhaps a nice hat with very special ears to keep his head warm in a brisk wind.

Look how extremely pleased he is. Don't you wish you had a nice cat-hat, too?

But of course you do. You can wear it so many different ways.

I think it would be rather more handsome with a tail attached to the back. The Royal Felidore thinks so, too. Can you tell by that excited look on his face? It makes the Queen of Socks want to snap up her needles and knit up another one without even so much as a pause.

-----------------------------------------

All that fun was compliments of Donna Druchunas and her book Kitty Knits: Projects For Cats and Their People. Thanks to her and her knitting buddies for helping us make these wonderful treats. Of course, we're not finished with all the many projects in the book. Next will be a few felted cat beds, a lovely alpaca throw, and a pair of those clever socks with a kitty face border on the cuffs. But, the felted mice will always be our faves. The book is worth it just for that pattern. To get your own copy, click here, and be sure to follow the rest of Donna's blog book tour for more excited kitties and their new toys. You can visit Donna at Sheep To Shawl for the tour schedule. We enjoyed our visit with you, Donna. And we love our mice!

I'm only a cat,

and we'll get along fine...

As long as you know

I'm not yours...

you're all mine!

~Author Unknown

(If you'd like to leave us a message, click on the post title for a new comment page.)

Soon, very soon

I plan to host Donna Druchunas soon on her Blog Book Tour for Kitty Knits. Yes, this is the same knitwear designer who just released Ethnic Knitting Discovery. The woman clearly never sleeps, which is all to our benefit(s). Anyway, since this knitting book is for my furry royal felines, I thought perhaps I should introduce you to the purr-fect court of champions. Following will be photos of many, if not all. And, yes, I do intend to knit each of them one of those darling mice from Donna's book!

An Ethnic Knitting Discovery

BLOG BOOK TOUR STOP

Today we're visiting with Donna Druchunas to ask questions about her new book, Ethnic Knitting Discovery. Here we'll talk about the two-color knitting project I attempted from the book, what I’m calling The Buddy Project.

Dani: Donna, I grew up in Europe, seeing and wearing Nordic sweaters, and love them! I decided to try the two-color knitting in the Norway section of your book. I haven't knit using two colors much, and wanted a serious try at it. So, here's my first attempt, using your clever charts to size an ankle warmer for myself, and using one of my first attempts at spinning yarn. I had definite troubles stranding the yarn and you can see how it pulled inward. Any suggestions on how to alleviate that or is that just a common issue with beginners?

Donna: Getting a nice gauge with color knitting is always challenging. That's why I like the Andean technique. Because you're working on the inside of the tube, the floats are naturally eased in properly and there's no pulling.

When I work in other color stranding techniques (I usually carry one color in my right hand and the second in my left), I have to be careful to pull the knitting out on the needle before I start each color. I don't know about you, but when I knit with one color, I usually let all the stitches scrunch up on the right needle after they've been knitted. You can't do that with color knitting. You have to take the time to spread out the knitting every time you change colors, especially if you've gone more than 1 or 2 stitches between color changes. It isn't as annoying as it sounds; it just becomes part of the knitting rhythm once you get used to it.

That said, I still often have to steam-press my colorwork to block it out nicely when I'm done. I have a friend who knits so beautifully with color stranded techniques that she hardly needs to block her pieces. Some day I need to sit and watch her knit for an hour or so and see if I can figure out her trick!

Dani: I also had problems with a bit of a hole when alternating between the two yarns. Is there a trick to handling that while I'm knitting?

Donna: Getting a hole when you alternate between yarns usually happens in the Intarsia technique where you're not stranding the unused color behind your work and you have a separate length of yarn for each section of color. When you use that technique, you have to make sure you twist the yarns every time you change colors -- bring the new color up from underneath the old color on the wrong side of the work. If you don't twist the colors like that, you're essentially knitting a different piece with each color.

With stranded knitting, I've never come across that problem before. If you're getting holes in stranded knitting, we should discuss that more to figure out what's going on.

Dani: My zigzag pattern didn't turn out very well, and I think I got the stitches okay. But my handspun seemed to twist tightly enough that the stitches got buried in the black Brown Sheep worsted. Or is it just because a solid contrast color might have worked better?

Donna: Definitely using two contrasting solids would make the pattern pop more. But it also makes a difference which color you carry in which hand (assuming you're using two hands for your colorwork). I usually knit looser with my right hand and get a tighter tension with my left hand, so my patterning looks neater if I carry the background color in my right hand so the pattern stitches are tidier. But sometimes that makes the pattern recede into the background.

Dani: So using Donna's tips, I cast on a fingerless glove and things seem to be working better! You can take a peek at it and read about charting adventures, cutting up your knitting (gasp) and information about books in Donna’s future at the Blog Book Tours site where we continue our conversation.

To buy the book, click here.

To read a bit more about Donna's publisher, Nomad Press, and the Green Press Initiative go here.

Eeek

Edsel Ford, did you just eat my alpaca shawl??

Not me, Mom. It was like this when I found it, honest.

He looks way too guilty, doesn't he? Closer inspection tells the real story. It's the dreaded M-word. Moths. Moths.

ACK. EEEK. YIKES. I loved that shawl. It was the Aunt Phoebe shawl from Sheep to Shawl.

Speaking of that, don't forget to stop in tomorrow when Donna Druchunas has her blog book tour stop here, featuring her latest knitting book Ethnic Knitting Discovery.

Buddy Project

As I was organizing photos for the blog book tour stop, I ran across this photo of Old Buddy. He's my oldest cat, and now starting to fail as time goes on. He came into our lives as a stray, and when we had him neutered, the vet told us he was a very old cat. She also gave us the sad news that he had Feline Aids (FIV) and probably wouldn't live long. That was eight years ago, and he's been healthy as can be thanks to a whole foods diet and a lay-back attitude; that is, until lately. I'm preparing myself to let him go, without the frantic attachments I would have had in my younger day. He's had a long life and given us, as well as dozens of feline friends, all his sweet and gentle personality. Now he's tired, and he can go "over the rainbow bridge" whenever he chooses to give up the ghost. I'll always cherish this magical photo of him as he relaxes in the sun catching some warmth, unwittingly colored by the beams of a bevel in the kitchen window. When I post more pictures of my current knitting, it should be obvious why I've decided to call it The Buddy Project.

Roving on

Over the next few days, I'll start posting my preparations for the Ethnic Knitting Discovery blog book tour that's coming up on October 18th right here! This is one of the yarns I'm using in the project I've designed from the book, here still as roving. I couldn't resist the colors and not having much experience with spinning, had no idea how it would spin up.








Here it is spun as a single.










I then plied it with an Opal black sock yarn
just to see what would happen.



This is the Knitty Kitty photogragh for the week. Edsel Ford is much more interested in what's under the fruit bowl than silly old yarn.