{"id":599,"date":"2016-05-31T14:40:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/?p=599"},"modified":"2016-05-31T15:09:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T15:09:45","slug":"a-little-knitted-cat-you-can-make-in-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/a-little-knitted-cat-you-can-make-in-a-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A little knitted cat you can make in a day"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you know my son, Ember, you know that he loves cats. \u00a0When he was little, there were times when his\u00a0main communication was in meows. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lately, we’ve been housebound, owing to some medical issues in my family. \u00a0I struggle when we\u2019re housebound. \u00a0Nature and community– both of these things are my solace, and illness makes it harder to access both of them. \u00a0It\u2019s hard to bear the confines of four square walls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s a little project that helped to cheer us up yesterday! \u00a0It’s a\u00a0<\/span>little knitted cat you can make in a day, even as an inexperienced knitter. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This project comes from a wonderful book, Toy Making with Children<\/strong>, by Freya Jaffke<\/a>. \u00a0I highly\u00a0recommend this book. \u00a0It\u2019s full of great ideas– beautiful, handmade playthings you can make with fabric, wool, wood, knitting, all natural materials. \u00a0Waldorf toys can be very expensive. \u00a0Why buy them when you can make them yourself, and often involve your children?<\/span><\/p>\n

The instructions below come from that book, with a little annotation by me.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MATERIALS<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Wool knitting yarn in a kitty color<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Unspun sheep’s wool for stuffing<\/span><\/li>\n
  • 2 knitting needles<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Sewing needle and thread.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Crochet hook for binding off, if you so choose.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Embroidery floss for eyes and nose, and embroidery needle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    INSTRUCTIONS<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    You only need one stitch for this project, and it\u2019s the most basic knitting stitch– garter Stitch. Knit each Stitch across every row.<\/span><\/p>\n

    You will make three separate rectangles, and use these to create the body, head, and tail respectively<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"Three

    Three rectangles that will become tail, body, and head.<\/p><\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    BODY<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Cast on 16 stitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Knit a rectangle that\u2019s slightly shorter than a square. About 24 rows.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Bind off the remaining stitches. I used the crochet hook to do this. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Sew each corner into a cone shape to define the legs. What you have will look a little like a four-legged starfish.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Stuff the body. \u00a0(Little hands can do this!) <\/span><\/p>\n

    Close the stomach seam.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Defining

    Defining the legs.<\/p><\/div>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    <\/h3>\n
    \"Ember

    Stuffing the body– a great job for little hands!<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"Body,

    The stuffed body.<\/p><\/div>\n

    HEAD<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Cast on 7 stitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Knit about 20 rows. This rectangle should be twice as long as it is wide.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Fold it in half. \u00a0Sew up two sides and leave the third side open. \u00a0At this point, I also embroidered simple eyes and a nose. Stuff with wool, then close the final seam. \u00a0You might gather the lower seam a bit so that the head is nice and round.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Use a few stitches to shape little ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sew head onto body.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Sewing

    Here’s the head, pre-stuffing.<\/p><\/div>\n

    TAIL<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Cast on 3 stitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Knit about 20 rows.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sew together lengthwise, forming a tube. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Sew the tail onto the body, using strong thread and many stitches. \u00a0Tails get pulled on a lot…<\/span><\/p>\n

    That\u2019s it, you’re done!<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"Knitted<\/p>\n

    Ember loved his kitty. \u00a0It definitely took his mind off his sniffles, if only for a little while. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"From

    A litter of kitted cats. This image is from Toymaking with Children.<\/p><\/div>\n

    And thanks to Freya Jaffke, for the inspiration. \u00a0Again, I highly recommend her book.<\/span>
    \nHappy crafting!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you know my son, Ember, you know that he loves cats. \u00a0When he was little, there were times when his\u00a0main communication was in meows. \u00a0 Lately, we’ve been housebound, owing to some medical issues in my family. \u00a0I struggle when we\u2019re housebound. \u00a0Nature and community– both of these things are my solace, and illness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}