Category Archives: Cat Tales

A Pink Crochet Bunny for Handmade Monday

Higgins and I are home after going our separate ways for a night, I stayed with friends with beautiful pussy cats, so it was deemed safest for Higgins to have a little holiday with my son and his fiancée. (A little tiring for them by all accounts because Higgins has it firmly fixed in his head that Uncle Will is the best interactive toy ever, and followed him around constantly waiting for the next burst of canine centred entertainment.)

It was just as well he didn’t see how unfaithful I was being with this little beauty…

or with her sister, who discovered I had a cat treat in my bag…

But I’ve come straight back with my Planet Penny hat on because the Cotton Club yarn has arrived and needs sorting and wrapping and bagging and packing and there is a very long waiting list to sort out…so this is going to be a very short post! I’ll be in touch with the waiting list people very soon, so please bear with me!

I’ve been asked to write up my modified mouse pattern which I will do very soon, and it will be joined eventually by a pattern for a bunny. My Pink Bunny…

So for now I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts as she hosts this week’s Handmade Monday. Pay her a visit and find out what everyone else has been up to over the week..

See you soon x

New Crochet Bunting for Handmade Monday

There’s been a lot of weather about this week! Anyway, moments like this when you’re out for a walk make it worthwhile, even when it’s below freezing point. And no apologies for sharing another snowdrop picture, I’m getting a little obsessed by seeing things from a miniature dachshund’s viewpoint!

I’ve been happy and relieved that this week at our monthly Knit and Stitch meeting the little heart pattern was tested out by a relatively new crochet-er, and it worked ! (Bearing in mind I might have been crocheting for a while, but I’m a novice pattern writer!) Not only that, but having cracked the pattern, Carol went on to reinterpret the heart with crochet wire and beads, which is so pretty…

They look huge here, but they’re not much bigger than a 10p piece, delicate crochet jewellery.

My latest rainbow creation from my gorgeous cotton yarn basket is a new version of crochet bunting. I know the white Christmas Bunting is very popular but there’s been a lot of white around just lately, and I needed an antidote!

I’ll be posting the pattern in Tutorials very soon.

Which brings me to the fireplace. And the hearth rug. the scene of many a power struggle amongst the four legged members of the family. On the one side is Henry, who has been here for getting on for 17 years, who isn’t in the best of health, but who know exactly what is due to a senior citizen and is quite prepared to use all his ‘Grumpy Old Man ‘ tactics to make sure he gets his way. And on the other side is Higgins, who is absolutely sure that everything is all about him…

Today my sister arrived with a special present just for Henry, and I rather knew it was going to cause trouble…

A beautiful rag rug, exactly what a old and bony pussy cat needs…

um…hang on…

…that’s better…

But when a little chat about ‘sharing’ fell on deaf ears…

Higgins retired to the sofa…

Hang on, can’t you see him?

It’s a dog’s life…

But enough of all that. It’s Handmade Monday again, and it’s time to visit the lovely Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts and find out what everyone else has been creating this week.

Next week I’m hoping to share a new idea with you, one you might just want to join in with…

In the meantime, see you soon! xx

Cats and Crochet for Handmade Monday

It’s hard to believe that another Monday has come around again, and not only that, we’re at the end of January. How did that happen?

It’s been a very cold grey day here today, but we’ve had a couple of bright and sunny ones, and I’ve been out pottering, quite literally, in the veg plot as I’ve been rounding up all the plastic pots which were ‘going to come in handy’ and in fact have blown into various nooks and crannies, binning the broken ones and washing the useful ones and stacking them in the new mini greenhouse. I’ve started a diary of my gardening efforts which you’ll find via a tab under the header so I won’t repeat myself. Not much happening at the moment but hopefully there will be!

I found a cheerful bunch of tulips in the supermarket yesterday which have brought a ray of sunshine into the gloom today….

The big excitement of the week was a long awaited delivery. My very own rainbow in a box! I’ve got some wonderful new cotton yarn to play with. Not available in the UK just yet and I shall have to be a little secretive about it for the time being…

…but I can let you have a peek…

…do you want to see?

It’s so pretty. It’s a thinnish DK weight cotton with a beautiful sheen, and crochets like a dream on a 3.5 hook. I’m going to be doing lots of experiments with it over the next few weeks so watch this space…

And coincidently, the day before it arrived, I had an email from Jill, who writes the Stocki blog, about the Beautiful Blogger Blanket. I don’t know if you have come across it in your travels through the Blogosphere but you can find out all about it it here…

Jill was letting me know that my name had come up on the Beautiful Blogger Blanket Wish List, proposed by BebeRouge (Thank you BebeRouge, what an honour!) as somone she would like to see creating a square for the blanket. So this has been my very first project with this fab new yarn.

I will replace this photo asap when I have better light to do the colours justice!

I’m sorry I won’t be able to share the yarn brand just yet, but the pattern, which I have devised, will be available in the tutorials very soon.

I’ve had a little help with photography from Henry …

…whom I’m a little worried about at the moment. He’s been much brighter since he had his big operation last summer, and still rules the roost and keeps Higgins in order, but he’s never really regained the weight he lost despite having a big appetite. He seemed to be showing all the signs of having a thyroid problem but the tests have come back negative, and he’s lost a little more weight. He’s under observation, and we are keeping our fingers crossed, but he still likes to be involved in everything that’s going on, so that a positive sign. (Oh, and note the socks. A sign of how busy I’ve been, socks still on the needles, and I’ve hit the supermarket!)

And while we’re on the subject of cats, I’vew been working on samples of needlefelt animals for my next course at The OutHouse Studio and this is the first one..

And finally, I had to show you this. Higgins in his favourite spot in the sunshine, in a good vantage point to shout abuse at passing tractors, bicycles and joggers. (Note the chewed remains of a ball, and the stolen flower pot, great fun to steal that when I was trying to stack them up)

And now the back view, not easy to maintain ones upright watchful position without the aid of a box…

…and eventually it all gets too much, and you have to let things slide…

So all that’s left is to hand you over to Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts where she is hosting this week’s Handmade Monday and where you will find lots of other handmade goodies to see.

Have a good week,

see you soon! xx

Taking out Stitches…

…or ‘frogging’, as it is sometimes called. If you’re wondering why, as you unpick your precious stitches, you will, ‘Rippit, Rippit’!

Today was the day Henry went to be frogged! He was not impressed…

I took as a good sign just how MAD he was about the whole thing. Only 4 stitches but the fury, the spitting and snarling …phew! We’re both glad that’s over…

Higgins checked out the crate…

…and the patient…

…a risky business with that cold nose!

so Henry went to bed, and I had a soothing cuppa, and did some therapeutic baking.

When my children were very young we lived for a few years in Pembrokeshire, in fact my daughter as born there. We were very rural and I didn’t drive, so we were very self sufficient, and any treats were homemade or foraged. Jam was always blackberry, although as the children complained about ‘lumps’ it was bramble jelly, there was a freelance apple tree, and one amazing year the biggest field mushrooms I’ve ever seen.

I was always baking to feed these hungry mouths and a favourite was Welsh Cakes. I haven’t made any for years, and was amazed to find I could dredge the recipe up from memory (this is the memory that never knows where the car keys are!)

If you’d like to try them out, I’ve added them to the Recipe page which you’ll find at the top.

I have a knitting project on the go too, some birthday socks for a dear friend. Hard wearing and colourful was the key, and I must extol the wonders of Twitter again. I tweeted for recommendations and got an answer back from the lovely Pip of the Sock Yarn Shop. I wizzed over and had a really hard job to choose from all the lovely yarns and colours but finally settled on a Kaffe Fassett design for Regia. I ordered in the afternoon and was unwrapping the parcel at 8 o’clock the following morning!

…and I got a free bag to keep it in!

I think I’ve been creative enough today to join in with Handmade Monday, despite the feline frogging! Have you heard about it? You’ll find a guest post explaining it on Craft Blog UK which is well worth a look in itself if you’re a fellow blogger.

So I think it’s time to get back to the knitting needles if I’m to finish the socks by the end of the month, and offer a warm lap to Henry to make up for the indignities of the day.

See you soon…..x

More Hearts…More Pompoms…

Hello!!! Is it Thursday already? This week is galloping by. Firstly, because I know you’ll want to know, Henry is still doing nicely. The medication has been finished, and as I write he is snoring contentedly, in his bed. This is a relief, as when he first came back the only place he wanted to be if he couldn’t have a warm lap was a warm keyboard.

The only little cloud on the horizon is the visit to vet next Monday for the removal of the stitches. This will probably require the entire squad of nurses and maybe one or two brave volunteers from the waiting room as he will NOT be a happy bunny!

Oh, and some hair restorer…

His tummy was shaved for the ultrasound, his head was shaved for the spinal tap, patches were shaved on his legs for the drips, and his throat was shaved for the operation. Thank goodness it’s summer, I don’t think he’s be happy in a jumper, however beautifully knitted!

But pompoms, I hear you cry, you said there were pompoms!

There are SO many pompoms! I found this wonderful gadget…

Do you remember the Heart and Pompom bunting…

…which I made in January?

I still love it, but I made the pompoms with a little gadget which my mum had given me because she wasn’t very happy with her results. Well, I tried really hard with it, and made so many pompoms using up my leftovers…

but they were never as firm and fluffy as I wanted them to be.

Now I have found this gadget…

…and it is wonderful! The smallest sized one makes a beautifully firm pompom in just few minutes and it is so compulsive I had to pack the gadgets up and put them away as there was a danger that my entire stash would be used up!

The solution was to make a larger version of the Heart and Pompom Bunting – the tutorial for that is here. I just worked the last row in the pattern in the main colour and added an extra row in the contrast colour to make the hearts bigger and made the joining chain slightly longer between the hearts so I could use slightly bigger pompoms.

Would you like to see?

It was hard to find the best way to show you. When I hung it up inside I realised how much my house needs redecorating, and the light wasn’t right so here it is outside the studio…

There’s actually a bit too much light here, it rather bleaches the colours, but I’m not going to complain about sunshine! (If you can’t find the pompom maker locally I got mine from Clothkits thank you, Kaye!)

Now we have another sunshiny day I’d better get out into the garden. All the strong wind over the last couple of days has blown my little plastic greenhouse and flowerpots all over the garden. (Higgins has done his best to round things up but the toothmarks are a problem…)

Talking of Higgins, he’s rather had the spotlight taken off him with recent events but if you were wondering…he’s fine…

You see…?

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Fingers Still Crossed…

but… I’m allowing myself to be cautiously optimistic.

Henry had his operation yesterday and is progressing well. If this continues we should be able to collect him tomorrow, Saturday. I hope it won’t be too long before he and I are arguing over the nice warm keyboard again!

I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated all your kind and thoughtful comments. I’m sure all the positive vibes flowing in Henry’s direction from the bloggy network have helped, thank you, everyone!

I’ll keep you posted, and in the meantime, try and reactivate my creative muscles. I’ve spent the week mindlessly knitting, a stocking stitch UFO which has been languishing in a bag for at least two years which I believed required no thought or brain power.

This morning I frogged the entire section, having used the WRONG SIZE NEEDLES!!! Aaaaaaaaaaah! There’s a strong chance it’s going to return to the bag for another two years…

I’ll be back soon, have a wonderful weekend, xxx

Edited to add: Latest bulletin is that he’s doing well, has reverted to full ‘Grumpy Old Man’ mode and is terrorising the nurses. We pick him up tomorrow, I think they’ll be glad to see the back of him!

(…and he’s a ‘pussycat’ at home!)

(Sunday 7th – home, purring furiously and being ‘hoovered’ by Higgins. All is well….thanks again for all the messages xx)