Knitting with and for cats

7 June 2007

I adore my orange tabby cat, Joe. And he loves me. Trouble is, he often wants to love me while I’m knitting. I’ll be in my knitting spot on the couch and he’ll climb right onto my lap and start kneading my yarn. Or, worse, he’ll knead my knitting work in progress. I have a choice: I can dump him off my lap or I can put away my knitting. I’m proud to say that more than 50 percent of the time I put away my knitting.

His love of woolen knitted objects makes Joe, like most cats, a great family member to knit for. I don’t have to worry about fit or looks or a messed up pattern. If I knit something for Joe, he’ll lie on it. I even gave him what was left of my Einstein jacket after I frogged most of it.

The thing I like most to knit for cats is the fabulous Kitty Pi felted cat bed from Wendy Knits. The free pattern is here. A gallery of cats enjoying their Kitty Pis is here. I first read about the Kitty Pi a couple of years ago when one of my favorite bloggers, Crazy Aunt Purl, was making one.

The Kitty Pi is knit in the round and felted. Here’s Joe immediately after I put my first Kitty Pi, freshly completed, on the desk.

Joe immediately decided that the Kitty Pi was a great place to take a bath.

When my dear friends John and Rich got a kitty, the fabulous Emmett, I immediately went to work to make him a bed. He had the good graces to take to it immediately. Not long ago, Rich took this picture of Emmett enjoying the bed I made him.