OMG cats!

These cats:

Are clearly in need of a soft place to sleep! When I unpacked my yarn after the move, I found a bunch of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes that were slated for a cat bed. My stash is totally at storage capacity, so I finally got cracking on the bed to make some room for more yarn.

I’m all about the blue lately. I first saw the stitch pattern in the Mason Dixon book, but you can also find it in the first Barbara Walker treasury. Circles!

I put my cutie swatch in a zippered pillowcase, tossed in a little pillow for some good agitation action, and set it off. 10 minutes later I checked on the felting progress, and imagine my surprise when I found that the pillow had a hole in it, and its guts had EXPLODED into the washing machine and were floating in the water. Ack! That was the second time I’ve run the washer – Wally and his bro Dan the dryer are brand freaking new. I very, very carefully fished out all that crap (which was shredded poufs of fiberfill), and it royally sucked.

Wally made it through and felted the swatch like a champ. The swatch felted more in length than width, so I’m knitting a narrower version of the pattern in the final cat bed, so hopefully it will felt into circles rather than ovals.

I’ve made a bit more progress than this – the sides of the bed are done, and I’m about halfway done with the bottom. The cats have been chasing the yarn and gnawing on it, so here’s hoping that they’ll dig the finished product!

15 Comments so far

  1. LLA - March 16th, 2007 @5:00 am

    Love the little felted swatch, and can’t wait to see the felted bed!

  2. Cheryl - March 16th, 2007 @7:24 am

    your cats are pretty lucky – make sure you tell them so. I love that stitch pattern and it is brillant for a cat bed.

  3. Ava - March 16th, 2007 @8:28 am

    Cat bed?! Cat throne more like it. That stitch pattern is so very, very cool. I can only imagine the kitties strutting around, bragging about their new bed. I would be worried that my cat would never sleep in it and I would chase her around begging for just one picture. Can’t wait to see it in action.

  4. Lin - March 16th, 2007 @9:11 am

    That cat bed is great, I love that stitch pattern. And the cats at the window are great!

  5. Jennifer - March 16th, 2007 @9:22 am

    I love your colors and pattern choice! And Wow you’ve knit that mammoth thing fast!

  6. stacey - March 16th, 2007 @10:06 am

    that is going to be a great cat bed – and, what a perfect way to use up TONS of stash!!!!

  7. Adam - March 16th, 2007 @11:52 am

    The felted swatch is pretty sweet, that stitch pattern looks very cool when felted. I can’t wait to see the finished product! And glad to hear that the washer was ok!

  8. knittingphilistine - March 16th, 2007 @7:59 pm

    Cats are abound today in blogland!! And wow, such fancy beds for your sweet furry ones… Edwin Claudius just gets my lap or the floor.

  9. Liz - March 16th, 2007 @9:19 pm

    That bed is going to rock. I hear that jeans are good for agitation in washers, and most of the time they don’t explode ;-) What a bummer!

  10. ~drew emborsky~ - March 17th, 2007 @11:51 am

    The cat bed is beautiful! I can’t wait to see the final felted projects!!

  11. Ria - March 18th, 2007 @7:14 am

    That stitch pattern does look nice. I really like how the brown looks against the different shades of blue.

    I’ve seen a lot of people use a similar pattern for the backs of gloves, too. Where I live, it seems to be really popular.

  12. MJ - March 20th, 2007 @12:17 am

    That’s a lovely stitch pattern made the more interesting when felted. I’m sure the cat bed will be quite nice. Lucky cat!

  13. Ashley - March 20th, 2007 @7:06 am

    That is one swank cat bed! I love the color combo.

  14. Emilee - March 20th, 2007 @1:19 pm

    That is an awesome stitch pattern. I can’t wait to see the result!

  15. Meredith - March 20th, 2007 @6:16 pm

    Ooh, that’s going to look great!