Secret Christmas Project Revealed!

Knitted kitties!

with their live model and inspiration, my niece-cat Alice. Not to be confused with friend and knitter Alice, who has a cute son named Charlie, not to be confused with my cat Charlie. :) :)

Pattern: pattern is here.* Additional photo (I believe it is the same pattern used) here.

Needles: Mom's aluminum straights, Size 6

Yarn: No yarn or gauge specified in the pattern. I used Classic Elite Mohair (blissful sigh, my favorite fiber!)in #6516 (Natural) and #6585 (Pumpkin); Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in #1116 (Natural) and #1183 (Oriole). One skein each. Matching colors knit together as one strand. Also used bits of Classic Elite Mohair #6592 (Lupine) and #6599 (Late Summer Rose) for eyes and nose/mouth.

Other supplies: wax cord for whiskers, ribbon and bell for collar, polyfill for stuffing.

The Back Story (for my family, and anyone who is curious) I saw the etsy photo about six months ago, found what I think is the same pattern through an internet search, and put it in the pattern notebook for "someday." Then my sister L also sent me the etsy photo (not knowing I had the pattern), and I thought it would make a fun present for her and my mom. When I went to our knitbloggers' meeting last month at KnitWits, I took the pattern along, and the friendly and very helpful shop owner Sarah helped me to pick out yarn. I knew I wanted something fuzzy and soft, in Alice colors.

A Garter-Stitch Kitty, or, How Hard Can It Be? It wasn't until I sat down and tried to knit the head piece that I realized garter stitch wasn't going to work with the color change. As I switched to stockinette stitch, it finally clicked that I needed to do Intarsia. I'd read about it but had never tried it. I took out a knitting book my dad got for me years ago that has great photos, and followed directions for twisting the yarn at the color change to avoid the holes.

At first I made the head pieces by carrying the yarn along the back. But then I realized that the orange yarn was showing through the white. I switched to the bobbin method, wrapping a length of yarn around the ball band; after I did the body pieces, I went back and re-knit the head pieces. For the fourth time. But, at last, it was right.

1st attempt -- Carried yarns showing through, and twisted stitches (click to enlarge)

3rd? 4th? attempt, this time with intarsia

Charts Are Our Friends I'm a text girl -- it wasn't until last year that I realized I didn't know how to read a knitting chart, though I had been knitting for years! But now I had to draw my own chart, in order to replicate Alice's colors. She is mostly orange on top and white underneath. The head piece, with the white triangle shape, was easy enough to figure out. Because the body piece is a rectangle, I had to visualize what she would look like if she were lying with all her feet stretched out in front and back of her, like a bear rug (sorry Alice). Working from a photo, I drew a rough sketch of the orange shape on her back. The trickiest part was the back third of her -- she has "thigh highs" on her back legs, and I had to figure out how to get the colors to appear that way when the rectangle was folded and legs sewn into place. At that point, I printed out a blank grid, marking row 34 of the 52 rows I had already knitted, and what stitches had to be where in rows 35-52 to make her thigh-highs.

(We took photos of these pieces to show you -- they should go right here. We can't find them on the new camera, and I'm so annoyed!!! If I do find them, I will put them in this spot so you can see them).

The tail pieces, thankfully, are all orange. They use short-rows. When I knit them the first time, I tried a 3-needle bind off, but it makes a ridged seam. So I re-did them with a regular bind-off. The seam looks the same. I'm living with it, but I wish it looked better.

Facing Up  The first time I attempted the face, I used embroidery thread as recommended by the pattern. But I couldn't get a round-shaped eye with all those Vs in the stockinette pattern, and so abandoned that idea pretty quickly. I did an emergency run to Joann's for buttons (they were all too big) and beads (which I did purchase), but never used them because a quiet voice in the back of my head began to whisper "pink mohair." As in, "Kristen sent you the same brand of pink mohair that the kitties are made out of. Clip off a small piece and see if that will work better for the nose and mouth." And it did! It's called...duplicate stitch. LOL. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

I visited Hither & Yarn the next day (C is the most saintly man ever, for reading in the car while the saleswomen helped me), and purchased a darker pink and blue mohair. I experimented with faces until I found something I liked. I asked C twenty-five thousand times which face he liked. Then I used Wax Cord (in the bead/jewelry aisle) for the whiskers.

Seams and Stuff  At last it was time to sew everything together and put in the polyfill. I did the bodies first, then attached the tails, and left the heads for last until after I had done the faces.

Kitties taking shape; heads come next!

The heads were really difficult for me, especially towards the bottom where they round off. I sewed the head piece to the body first, from the inside, so that the orange on the back of the head would line up with the orange on the body (the kitty's back). Then I sewed the front of the head to the back, and put the stuffing inside. Again, my seams are not great, but I'm wondering if it's because my wool is so much thicker and my needle size so much larger than the original pattern. I tried to mattress stitch as best I could. Finally, I attached the bells to the ribbons and tied them around the kitties' necks.

Final Observations This project ended up to be a lot more complicated than I first thought it would be. Maybe if I'd thought it through better, I wouldn't have attempted it (but you know how you lose the ability to think through a project when in a yarn store, faced with all that gorgeous wool!), because of the stressful reality of having to learn new things under a time limit. But, I'm so glad I did it! It was very satisfying to do things I didn't think I knew how to do -- intarsia for one, creating the chart to match Alice's fur for another. It made me realize that my skills as a knitter have grown a lot, learning from you and reading about your projects! That said, I think I'll wait a little while before I attempt to do the other kitty in my sister's life -- she's a calico. Tortoiseshell hand-dyed yarn might be the best way to start, but, no, I have no intentions of learning how to dye yarn...

I'm so glad Alice approves!

*Please note that there may be a word or two in the pattern that some knitters may find inappropriate. Read through and edit before sharing with children. :)

Comments

[Kendra]

Those knitted kitties are absolutely gorgeous!!

[Sheepish Annie]

Oh, how cute!!! I'm so glad you persevered since the finished product was worth it. And the pix just make it all the better. Nice job!

[Kristen]

The mini-Alices are adorable, and it looks like she approves! When I first saw the pattern, I didn't imagine it would be so complicated. You did learn a lot of new skills, and as you say that is a very satisfying feeling.

[Julie]

The kitties are so adorable!

[Pam]

Your kitties are the cutest of all of them -- (excepting the real Alice, of course).

[Laura]

Those are MUCH too cute for words! Now I want one in gray and white to match Scout (and Elly).

You did a fantastic job adapting the pattern and exercising your knitting skills. I think you could have gotten away with carrying the yarn in the back if you hadn't weaved the floats (you did weave them, didn't you?)

Also, if you want round eyes, you could make french knots. But I love the inverted V eyes much better. They seem to be smiling at me.

Did you stuff them with catnip?

[tiennie]

Those kitties are so cute! Great gifts!

[2paw]

What an excellent Knitting Journal of thr Kitties' creation. They are so cute and Alice loves them!!! I plan to make some for a friend who just got a new kitten yesterday!! Thanks so much!!!

[Beth]

Those knitted kitties are so very cute! Good going and way to stick with it!

[Meg]

Ooh, the kitties are so cute! It's amazing how sometimes the simplest, most innocent looking patterns really do expand one's horizons! I found the same thing with my first knitted toys, it's all about the little fiddly details, which I've never really bothered t pay attention to in things ilke jumpers!

[Jane]

Absolutely fabulous! You did a great job.

[Sarah Elizabeth]

Those kitties. Are so. ADORABLE!

Brilliant work!

[Katrina]

Debby, your knitted kittens are gorgeous!

[Rachel]

Oh my gosh, those are just fabulous! I'm so glad you persevered. I just love them.

Although I also have to say I'm disturbingly drawn to the headless versions.

[alice]

What a clever thing you are! They're wonderful. I can see what you mean about seeing the colour carried over on the first photo, but I don't understand how you got around it. Did you have to cut the yarn instead of carrying it over? I've never done intarsia before. I'm impressed. Brilliant indeed!

[Amy Artisan]

The knitted kitties are darling! I might have to give these a try this year. :)

[Nancy]

The final is uber-cute, but the headless kitties are freaky! Nice work!