Little Kitty

Back in mid-summer, I took Lucy (who was still 11 back then) to the library while I was looking for a knitting book.  She found this book on knitting your own cat.  She was determined to knit her own cat.  All she had knit so far was some garter stitch--I don't think she actually finished anything.  The pattern looked overwhelming, but I told her that she just has to do one instruction at a time.  The first step though, would be to learn the purl stitch!

When I taught Lucy to knit a few years ago, she came to the conclusion that the yarn should be held with the left hand.  It made more sense to her, and  although it didn't make her faster, it works for her.  The first thing she needed to do was learn to purl.  Now, if you've ever tried to purl with the yarn in your left hand, there's two ways to do it.  An awkward way that leaves the stitch in the right position for the knit row, or a quick way that twists the stitch and means you have to knit through the back loop.  She found the quick way easier (it really is), and had no problem now knitting through the back loops on the knit row. It's fine until you come to specific instructions like "knit into front and back".  We both had to figure these things out; kfb becomes kbf.

So, once her stocking stitch was going well, we started on the cat.  It's a busy pattern, with stuff  going on almost every row until the upper leg and then body.  The first leg took her maybe a month?  It got faster after that.  She's not an "every day knitter", she will go long stretches without doing any, and then spend a long time at one go.  She was determined to get it done by Christmas though.  I was doing the sewing up for her, and although it's not hard, I was quite busy with my Christmas orders.  And I knit the tail.  And ears.  I got it all done and put kitty in the tree late on Christmas Eve.  I don't think she found it till about Dec 27 LOL.  It still doesn't have a face though.  I suggested that leaving the face off adds to the abstract feel of the kitty.

Her and her brother got a little rough with kitty though, and the pipe cleaners in the legs have risen up.  Wish I had known this before I sewed together the unicorn I'm working on!  One day sooner...

She got the book again and bought some colourful yarn to make another one.   She had thought she'd make one of each cat in the book, but she's picked the same pattern again.  Bit by bit, she's moving along :)
The yarn amount was included in the 2014 totals.  It took 18gr!  I wonder if my scale was off?