Friday, December 29

Where are the mousies?

Whose patterns do I use for my toys? They're my own originals. When I was looking for cat toy patterns some years ago, I couldn't find a mouse pattern I liked. I wanted something quick and easy to knit in one piece with little finishing. I sat down with needles and yarn and knitted one prototype after another until I got it right. My mouse is knit beginning at the nose, and ends by crocheting a chain for the tail using the final stitch. The ears are knit in as you go. The cast on yarn end is used to sew it up. Here's what they look like before they're sewn up.
One mouse takes about 10-12 yards of worsted weight. When I get bored I double the yarn up and use bigger needles to make BIG mice. Or tiny mice with sock or baby yarn on smaller needles. Or stripey ones. Boredom does set in after knitting over 2,000 of them in the last 6 years. :-)

I created my mouse pattern in the Fall of 2000 and the whale in July 2002. The little balls are crocheted out of about 3 yards of small scraps I tie together. My patterns were published in the Spring 2006 issue of Inknitters magazine in the charity knitting supplement. The magazine editor told me I would get a free 1 year subscription to their magazine for letting them publish my cat toy patterns. Guess what? I've yet to see one free issue!
I may offer my toy and other patterns on my blog either free or for a small charge. I'd like to offer them as a pdf file you can print out. I still have to figure out how to do that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'd love to have a copy of your patterns, those little mice are adorable even before you stuff them !

cattiekit said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, PLEASE please please please allow us to get a copy of your adorable mouse pattern, which will save us hours of trying to imitate it without any success?