Now here is a warning: apart from the first part, this posting will include cute pictures of knitted and real cats and a baby, and then a baby posing with a knitted cat, so if this kind of thing is too twee for you I suggest you turn this page off.
I have been spending my Sunday very leisurely today. Been watching (and getting a bit addicted to) The American Horror story on Netflix and most importantly been really indulging in my latest knitting project which I am sure I will share with you when it's done. It's a jumper from my favourite book, " Country weekend Knits; 25 Classic patterns for timeless knitwear" by Madeline Weston. I am using the Finnish version of the book " Kauniit neuleklassikot". I have mentioned the book earlier in this blog. I am knitting with lovely Guernsey wool by Frangipani http://www.guernseywool.co.uk/. Anyway I am getting beside the point, I was meant to blog about something entirely different. Here goes:
To get a break from the American Horror story, I decided that I do this blog post of a project that I finished in April. It is a cute knitted cat, from a pattern from another book that I use a lot called "Aiti neuloo ja virkkaa" By Laila Kemppinen. It is a Finnish knitting and crochet book from the 70's that I use a lot as a reference point for some basic patterns.
The cat from the book is featuring on the cover! How convenient for me. This is how the cat I knitted looks like:
Isn't he cute!
I used just basic acrylic DK yarns that I had in my stashes. Might have bought a couple of them to compliment the colours, which I absolutely adore. The knit was simple, with 5 double pointed needles, knitting a circular stockinette stitch changing colour of the stripes every 14th rows. Starting from 24 stitches increasing to 60 stitches and then knitting a tube. (I think the needle size is just size 4mm (UK), although I prefer often knitting with slightly thinner needles to get the stitches a bit tighter and neat. I think if I was to do this again, I might try knitting with a circular needle and using "magic loop" technique (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-knit-in-the-round-with-the-magic-loop.html) as with the double pointed needles ladder had formed as I kept changing from one needle to another. It didn't really bother me greatly in this particular project, but I know there is a bunch of you perfectionists out there who might want to take this little tip on board. I am not one, of course, although my boyfriend and my business partner seems to disagree with me on that.
For your delight I will also include you some pictures of the domestic bliss that goes on in my house/ garden, where this knitted cat poses with and confuses my lovely cat residents.
Now Phoebe has had enough
My favourite part about this project was of course to gift this Stripey friend to his new owner. He was in fact a birthday present to my lovely nephew-in-law. I was a nervous wreck in hoping that the cat and the 1 year old would become great friends. I think they seemed to like each other from the first meeting.
Too adorable.
Now I hope you enjoyed this post. I will get back to my current knitting and watching American Horror story. I am not usually into horror as I can't handle it, but I am really intrigued by the beautiful and interesting story in this series. I can only watch in the daylight (would not be so cruel to myself and watch it before bedtime, things just adventure in my dreams! I don't need more triggers), so I am trying to get this Sunday spent the best possible way: curtains half closed so the sun doesn't bother me ;) and with my knitting and Netflix. I will be out and about next weekend.
See you soon!
Valpuri
