Kim's Crochet Blog

Last week there was a bit of star theme in my crocheting.  I learned two new things via the wonders of YouTube.  I hesitate calling 2 things a theme but keep thinking back to middle school math where I learned I can draw a line with two points.  So here is my line with a star theme.

I have watched several crochet tutorials by Mikey (aka The Crochet Crowd) and there was one that always stuck around in the back of my mind; a crochet blanket in the shape of a star that can be any size you choose depending entirely on when you stop.  I thought this would make a fantastic Snuggle for The Snuggles Project.  The video titled “How to Crochet a Super Star Baby Afghan” was easy to follow.  I opted to start my beginning ring with a magic ring so I could cinch it really tight and not leave a gap in the middle.  I think it leaves a more finished look for this project.  The star is made up of double crochets so it grows quickly!  I used up a bunch of scrap balls of yarn and contrasted the colors with some black to make them pop.  I finished my star the same day.  It has a great shape and lies flat.  So many crochet stars end up with unpointy points and then look more like flowers than stars.  The pattern has 3 chains in the points allowing for more of a star point shape.  The pattern is also easy to memorize as was proven by the starting of 4 more star Snuggles while subbing the last week!

I haven’t Snuggled in a while and was starting to feel a bit bad about that.  I know it’s a charity and I haven’t promised anything to anyone but I still feel like it is something worth my while.  I love the opportunity it gives me.  I can learn new things, use up scraps of yarn, give my time to cats that do not have their families yet.  It’s a bit odd to think about my Snuggles and wonder where they are now.  Are people enjoying them?  Have they been used well and withstood the use?  Do the cats like them?  Have the cats who have a Snuggle in their shelter cage been adopted?  Did my Snuggle make them seem more adoptable somehow?  The last question is the one I’d really like to have an answer to, but if I never get one I’ll be fine.  As long as I can find a shelter that appreciates and uses the Snuggles I’ll continue making them.  I’ll probably schedule another delivery soon.  I’m pretty sure I have over 12 Snuggles in a bag waiting for me.  Add these 5 stars and it’ll be a nice bounty once again.

The second point in my line is the star stitch.  Back in the fall I downloaded a pattern for fingerless gloves that were made using the star stitch.  I tried following the written directions for the star stitch and got all befuddled.  Needless to say those fingerless gloves were never made.  The star stitch still haunted me.  It’s so delicate and different than other crochet stitches.  So while watching the Super Star Baby Afghan video something in the suggested videos got me thinking about looking up a tutorial on YouTube for that too.  So from the star blanket I moved onto the star stitch.  I used a very scratchy white Red Heart yarn which was terrible to work with in color and texture but the stitch still turned out beautifully.  I chained 24 just as in the tutorial and used a large hook, a J maybe.  This sample turned out the right size for a Warm Up America block.  By pure coincidence I was working on both of my charities!  The YouTube tutorial “Crochet Star Stitch” was made by Teresa from the channel The Art of Crochet and the blog The Art of Crochet by Teresa.  A couple days before I had started a Snuggle that was just going to be a mix of different stitches and I decided to practice a row of star stitch.  It worked out nicely and gave the Snuggle some interesting texture.  The Snuggle was made using Caron Simply soft, a big contrast to the Red Heart I had used the first time.  The Caron has a bit of a sheen to it which highlights the star stitch nicely.  The softness of the yarn also made the stitch itself go much faster and smoother!   All in all I was very happy with it.  I think that alternating the star stitch with a row of single or double in between might be really nice.  The star stitch is made using two rows and the wrong side is a bit different than the right side.  Some proper calculations will be necessary and of course good old counting (who does that? Not me)!

My purple sweater took a break.  I finished all the parts to it but discovered that I had cast off the armpits too early due to a miscalculation.  I’ve knitted 2 small strips that I’m sewing in.  After all the bits are seamed I’ll have to see what I can understand about making a finished collar around the neck.  I’ve had the project laying on the couch and Onyx has attempted to  knead it much to my dismay.  I kept a pillow over it if I wasn’t there, but if I’m on the couch I usually use both throw pillows which means the sweater is left exposed.  I moved it to the coffee table thinking that would work with minimal effort but she still managed to discover it.  Finally my husband was the smart one and put the whole thing into one of the storage ottomans which was what I should have done at the beginning.  Hopefully the sweater has only sustained an unnoticeable bit of pulling of fibers.  I picked it up again yesterday thinking I really should just get it finished.  Maybe tonight.

This evening I was knitting my purple sweater, wearing the finished sleeves to fend off the chill in the evening air, and thinking about the blog.  All week it was on the To Do List and I just never got to it.  A couple times I sat down at the computer to write but nothing came.  Spring is in the air but we still haven’t had consecutive warm days that make it seem like it’s here to stay.  The mornings and evenings can have quite a bite to them still.  So knitting my sweater doesn’t seem completely off base.  If I hurry I can wear it at least once this spring.

The sweater has given me some headaches.  The language is a bit awkward for a ‘first time’ knitter.  I got really stuck here:

When piece measures 33-34-35-36-37-38 cm [13''-13 3/8''-13¾''-14¼''-14½''-15''], cut the thread. Now continue as follows: Beg after the 15-17-20-23-26-29 st from the first MT. Work 14 sts front band – see above – and stockinette st on the next 74-82-94-106-118-130 sts. Now pick up 14 new sts behind the front band = 102-110-122-134-146-158 sts.  [ DROPS Jumper Pattern here ]

Thank goodness for Ravelry as it saved the day.  Between envisioning the knitting, rewriting the directions how I understand them, talking to folks on the forums, and looking at notes made by other people on the same pattern I finally got that part figured out.  One thing I learned is that I may want to rewrite the DROPS pattern so I don’t get lost in it all.  All the different numbers for the sizes and whatnot really, really distract me, to the point where I forget what I was reading about before the list of numbers.  I end up doing a lot of reading aloud to help myself get a grasp of it.  I even act it out a bit.  LOL.  I’ve also been using a notebook and just writing my version down for myself there.  It’s so much easier to follow!  The above section looked a bit more like this:

When piece measures 33cm cut thread.  Continue as follows:

Begin with new thread after 15th st from 1st marker.  Work 14st of front band and stockinette in next 74st.  Pick up 14 new st behind front band.  88+14=102st.  Continue back and forth on needle with 14 front band st on each side.

Now in my notebook I have each direction as a bulleted note so that it’s even faster for me to find where I am.  Sometimes paragraphs and I just don’t get along.

For the sleeves I had to either buy myself some size 11 double pointed needles(also known as DPNs) or learn how to do the magic loop for knitting(which is nothing like the magic loop for crochet!).  I decided I have 2 sets of size 11 needles, 1 with a 32″ cable so the magic loop would do for me.  I went to my favorite knitting learning site, KnittingHelp.com,  and watched the video several times for the magic loop as it was throwing me for a loop!  After knitting about 10cm of the sleeve I decided that it was too large in diameter for me so I pulled it all out.  Then I decided that now I’ve got a handle on the magic loop I should knit BOTH sleeves at the SAME time on the magic loop!  I was feeling pretty proud of myself for deciding the tackle that within 24 hours of learning the magic loop.  This time I refered to Liat’s video YouTube to see how one would do 2 things with the magic loop.  I made my notes with all the new numbers and worked it all out.  I was feeling some math love when everything worked out on paper and again when it worked out on the needles.  The sleeves have a bit of a gap where the magic loop causes tension between the 2 ‘sides’ of the circle but it’ll do.  I’m pretty sure that my sweater will be a ‘lazing-around-the-house’ thing anyway.  If I had a couple more stitches on the sleeves there may have been slightly less tention between the sides.  Doing the two at the same time worked out nicely since I could just do the same thing to each at the same point; if I increased on one I’d do it to the other too, less note taking that way.  I am quite happy and impressed with myself, which is probably why I wore them while working on the sweater back tonight.

After some diliberation I decided to pull out what I had done on the left and right of the sweater front.  I had attempted to understand when to decrease but not with the right results.  I took my new sweater-knitting-confidence and ripped it out to where I first cast off 6 stitches to make the bottom of the arm holes.  This was a bit unnerving as knitting doesn’t behave like crochet; instead of one live loop there are many stitches that can slip out at the slightest wrong move.  I put the sweater on a pillow on my lap to give it an even surface and ripped.  Since the yarn is so bulky it went fine.  Phew!  I don’t think I picked up the stitches correctly though, so one side has twisted stitches.  Oh well, like I said ‘lazy-around-the-house’ thing.  I looked at my notes, rewrote them and have reknitted both sides.  All that’s left now is knitting the back and then the neck.  I’m skipping the hood so I’m sure I’m in for some more headaches, this time of my own doing.  Then it’ll be seaming time, another new thing.

There is more to blog about; Kes’ 2nd ampuversary, my finished plarn tote, and the CT Sheep and Fiber Festival, but I’ll have to put that on this week’s To Do List.

Kes helping keep my place in my notebook.

All of February and most of March has flown by.  I spent about 10 days of February on the couch with what turned out to be a sinus infection.  Those 10 days were then followed by another 5 or so where I still didn’t feel right.  I’m happy to say that it’s all behind me now and practically forgotten.  Time does great things like that.  Something time does that I don’t like as much, is whiz by in a blink.  The last 4 or more weekends my blog has been on my To Do list, but as we can all see it didn’t get done and crossed off.  I’ve been busy crocheting and knitting though!

The Monday before my sinus infection I went to the weekly knitting group with knitting in hand.  I didn’t realize that this was the first time I’ve actually knit at the group until several members pointed it out.  Guess I’ve always crocheted.  My friends Luigi and the Goomba took up many Monday nights.  The project I started that night was a cowl for my sister called the Braidy Cowl.  I found the pattern at Ravelry as usual.  I used cobalt blue Lion Brand Microspun yarn which was so snuggly soft!  The pattern included 16 stitch cables which were a lot of work.  Slipping 8 stitches back onto the needles after knitting the other 8 was always a fight.  Then knitting the first few of the 8 was even more of a fight.  The cowl came out fabulously though, so all worth the fight.  If you’re a knitter who hasn’t tried cabling I suggest trying it out on my favorite project: Warm Up America.  There are instructions for a block with cables about 3/4 of the way down the page.  KnittingHelp.com has wonderful videos to help get a visual example of how to do many things, including cabling.  Here’s a link to the page with videos on cables.  My sister has yet to receive her snuggly cowl.  Hopefully she’ll send me a picture of her wearing it and I can post it here.

I finished a scarf for myself in January or February.  It was another pattern found on Ravelry called the Drop Stitch Scarf.  I used yarn that I bought at Stitches East in November 2010.  It was a nice variegated yarn running  red to deep purple to a nearly black purple.  What drew me to the yarn initially was the squishiness and it kept that quality when it was knit which made me very happy.  I have a nice close up of the pattern with some slight reflecting from the floor.  Enjoy!

Something new I tried in January/February is tapestry crochet.  This is crochet with several colors running at once working the current color around the carried colors.  My test pattern was a cat tote bag which I kept simple by using only 2 colors: black and white.  I found the pattern initially at Ravelry and then browsed the site of the pattern creator Carol Ventura at Tapestry Crochet.  She also has a blog to tickle your crochet senses even more and to see how Carol uses tapestry crochet as art.  The tote bag calls for cotton but I opted for Red Heart acrylic so that I could learn and understand what is involved a bit easier, plus it was in my stash.  The instructions for starting the bag were a bit confusing at first but I had Lindsey from Poetry In Yarn next to me at the knitting group that night and she helped clarify it for me.  From my slow start I quickly got the hang of switching colors and quickly felt like an old pro.  The hardest part on the cat pattern was keeping the tail looking like 1 solid color.  If I didn’t switch colors well and keep it tight the second color could be seen easily.  I really enjoyed the pattern and made it into a small project bag.  I’ve used it for my current project to take it to Monday night knitting ever since.  When I first ventured into the world of tapestry crochet I joined the Tapestry Crochet Group at Ravelry.  Carol runs the group and is very involved.  She responded quickly to any questions I posted which was great.

Somewhere in my tapestry crochet travels I found a sample of the special grid for planning your tapestry crochet image.  I created my own sitting cat pattern and then worked it using 2 colors of cotton.  I used cotton to get an idea of how tapestry crochet would look in that material.  It turned into a little bag with one cat on each side.  I can almost put my hand in it.  I’ll have to figure out how to add a zipper and use it as a little change bag or something like that.  It was a lot of fun to design and then execute.  My husband also seemed to enjoy the process.  Using the slanted grid was a bit more awkward than I thought it would be.  After creating your image on the slanted grid it’s best to transfer it to a standard grid so that you don’t get lost in the slanted squares.  At the moment I can’t seem to find the page of the sample grid, ugh.

A surprise package arrived at my door this past Wednesday.  In it was 3 skeins of blue cotton, 3 balls of blue crochet thread, 4 partial skeins of fuzzy acrylics, a cylinder containing 6 crochet hooks, and a drop spindle kit.  All these things belonged to my mom when she was into crochet in the 70s.  She dug up her box of crochet goodies and sent them along to me.  She was subscribed to a crochet club in the Netherlands and still has binders full of projects that she received in the mail.  I’ve been crocheting using the blue thread and the size 1 hook.  I’ve always wanted to try it so this package was a welcome surprise!  I have no idea how to use a drop spindle so I’ll show it off to the knitting group tomorrow where I know there are several spinners.  The kit even came with undyed wool to start off with!

August has arrived and I haven’t blogged in way too long.  I have been finding time here and there to crochet, pretty much all for The Snuggles Project.  I really enjoy crocheting and doing it for kitties in need makes me happy.  As usual, I have a couple photos to share!  The Snuggles Project group I’m a member of at Ravelry.com has themes for each month.  June was Single/Double Crochet and July was color of your favorite pet month.  I have yet to check what August is.  To mix things up in July I decided to try my hand at cat toys since they aren’t any different than amigurumis.  I made a couple Snuggles and toys in June & July.  On to the photos!

After making a lot of Snuggles in May I spent some time making some appliques to add to completed Snuggles.
This one is a Single/Double Snuggle with 2 yarns and a heart added on for extra love!

I wanted to try an oval for a fun Snuggle shape.  This is based on The Perfect Place-mat by Monique MaiGnan.

This is the seed stitch done 2 rows in color A and 2 in color B.  I was going to write a pattern for this but I don’t have the base
chain stitch count right yet.  I’ll have to try again.  I added tassels after a Snuggles group member at Ravelry.com showed off her tasseled beauty.

I hadn’t tried just crocheting a square Snuggle although they are usually square.  This is based on the Cheerful Squares baby afghan at Lionbrand.com.

Lots of the same colors.  I bought some Vanna’s Choice yarn at Ocean State Job Lot for $2 a skein and some Red Heart Super Saver with a coupon at Michaels.  Now that we’re in a new month I’m working on new Snuggle plans.  Katmcab at Ravelry.com has a scallop edged Snuggle pattern I’m excited to try out.  I have a Snuggle tubby in my queue that I’d also like to try but it might have to wait until after summer camp is over.

I’ll probably keep working on the toys.  Any suggestions would be great!  The yellow flower toy depicted below is actually just a flower crocheted twice and sewn together.  I stuffed it with a grocery bag hoping it would crinkle but not much luck with that.  I’ll have to try out a thicker bag to see if it’ll crinkle better.  I’m also thinking about getting some bells or other goodies to stuff into the toys. The mouse and the long purple thing are stuffed with some catnip so I’ve had to keep those from my cats.  I crocheted a fish for them and added catnip; they like it.

Where did May go?!  Poor Pikachu has been waiting for eyes while I work on other projects so he’s going to have to sit and stay at 98% done.  I’m a bit nervous about how to do the eyes, I just can’t bear the thought of possibly ruining his cuteness with poor eye execution.  For now I’ll keep thinking about how to do them.  *thinks: black felt circles…*

I haven’t been sitting idle staring at Pika.  I’ve been hook and yarn in hand staring at his eyeless face crocheting fiercely though.  I discovered I needed an amigurumi break and felt that Pikachu was a good final battle; that is, when he actually gets a face.  After a lot of digging around in the crochet section of the interwebs, I ran into a charity called The Snuggles Project.  The project was created in 1996 when its founder was saddened at the thought of all the shelter animals sitting in their barren shelter cages so she set out to create ‘security blankets’ for them called ‘Snuggles.’  This was a perfect interruption to the amigurumi battle that had been waged in my living room since January ’10.  I managed to crank out 12 Snuggles; some experiments in patterns, some basics, some just plain old experimental everything.  This was a lot of fun!  I even tried out a pattern written by a Snuggles Project group member at Ravelry.com.  Which brings me to my new addiction:  Ravelry.com!  So many patterns, beautiful things, and great yarny camaraderie!  I’ve learned so much between the Snuggles Project and the great stuff at Ravelry.  In the Snuggles pictured on the right you can see some of the fun I’ve had this May.  I learned an ‘Abstract Cats‘ pattern by Teresa at The Art of Crochet, which I’ve had my eye on for a couple months now.  The Snuggles are perfect for experimentation.  I created my own little double crochet pattern that shows a cat face.  You can see the black cat on the yellow background, that was my second time with the pattern but first time with changing colors like that.  It turned out ok, not quite as I would have liked.  The red one is the first attempt at the cat where the outline is made of skipped stitches.  I’m more satisfied with that.  I’ll probably try the same thing again but substitute a puff stitch for the skipped stitch which will create a little 3D cat face, and if you’ve watched any movies lately you know everything is better in 3D!  I also added the seed stitch and the single, double pattern to my crochet repertoire.

After making the abstract cats pattern Snuggle I had to adapt it to make something for MY cats.  I made a cat ‘tub’ with the abstract cats as the sides.  Before I even finished Kes was trying to snuggle in it so I knew I had an instant success.  Now that I’m done she is still interested in it which is good.  We’ll see if the interest picks up a bit when the weather turns to fall and winter since it’s rather toasty now.  I think I should have used a smaller hook for the sides so that it would be a bit stiffer.  The base circle is 2 strands of Red Heart and an L hook.  I kept the L hook for most of the cats around the sides before I realized that a smaller hook would be better.  I changed and it tightened up just a bit.  The cat likes it regardless, she’s just happy that it’s soft and snuggly.

My next project was a small pillow to use for sleeping and upcoming travels.  I’ve had a little stuffed animal since I was 10 that I’ve been using as a support pillow.  What’s so odd is that it took a long time to learn how to sleep with it as a child and now as an adult I’m just not comfortable without the support.  I decided that since I’m starting 30 in the eye I should graduate to a pillow of some sorts.  I’ve had no luck finding a pillow with similar dimensions since the stuffed animal (a cat of course) has a long rectangular shape to it.  After completing the cat tub and seeing an item with purpose, unlike all those cutesy amis, I realized that crocheting a pillow in my preferred dimensions wouldn’t be very difficult.  I had a nice soft yarn from Red Heart called “Soft Yarn” in black that just begged to be used for this.  I looked up how to crochet a solid rectangle and once again found myself at Teresa’s site but this time via one of her Youtube instructions.  I started off with the video but found I needed the written directions as well.   For the back, or other side, of the pillow I decided on a single, double crochet for a nice texture without the boringness of single crochet rows.  I noticed that the solid rectangle still has some gaps since it is in double crochet and as with anything that has corners in crochet; corner gaps.  I bet there’s a way to avoid that, I hope I’ll run into it during my crochet travels.  For the pillow stuffing I decided to take an old t-shirt and make an inner pillow which worked beautifully!  I knew the jersey knit of the t-shirt would be perfect for something that needs to be soft and flexible.  I could hardly contain myself as I sewed up the crochet pillow seams and got ready to put in the t-shirt pillow.  It came out perfectly and  I can’t wait to try it out tonight.

So although Pikachu never got the gift of sight this May at least 12 cats will have nice, homey Snuggles in their shelter cages, my cats have a new bed, and I have a new pillow.

I finished the brown plarn basket for my washpins the other day.  After I added little handles like the ChickPea pattern calls for (part of the cuteness appeal if you ask me) I decided I wanted a handle going across.  I crocheted a handle and slipped it through the two little handles which worked fine.  Plarn doesn’t really do so well in a skinny long format so the handle is a bit on the sad side.  I thought about making it wider but then it wouldn’t fit into the little handles I had already made.  The plarn isn’t holding the round shape as well as I had hoped so the whole basket looks a little mushy.  It was a fun experiment in plarn and basketry though and it will certainly do for its purpose.  I have yet to really use it aside from the washpins sitting in it for the last couple days.  Hopefully we’ll have some sun and I can hang some clothes out to dry.

While I made plarn for this project I had all my brown colored bags strewn all over the floor.  This was an irresistible cat playground and Kes got right in.  I got some cute photos of her laying in the massive pile of bags and feeling like she’s in heaven.  She was laying in the pile and I tossed a couple over her which she thought was great.  She was quite surprised when I cleaned up all the bags, she couldn’t find any reason this was necessary.  She tried her best to keep them all and ended up with one for herself.  She spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing on it.

I’ve started a new cat amigurumi project and at the moment it is only a head.  The cat pattern is Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service.  I found the pattern at Ravelry.com.  I created an account for Ravelry.com and now have a virtual list of projects there to compliment my real list of projects.  I’ve thought of some little gifts to make for friends since I’m on such a crochet kick.  Those amigurumis are too cute to resist but as I said when I made my first one, how many amigurumis can I have in my house without looking silly?  I might have to find a big project like Mario or a blanket.  For now I’m off to work on Jiji.

In between working on my crochet cats I took a few minutes to hide the ends on my large plarn tote from my February 7th blog entry.  It took so little time I don’t know why I put it off.  I decided that the handles are a good length especially if it gets used as a beach tote or something like that.  I’ve taken it out for a trial run buying a couple groceries and it works well.  It slings perfectly over the shoulder.  Now that I’m done with it I like the single crochet just fine for a tote and I’ll consider both single and double crochet in the future.  I took some photos of the tote itself to show on here and then I had a fun idea: put a cat in the bag!  I looked at Kes and decided she’d be slightly uncooperative and that it might be a little unnerving for her since she’s a threelegger.  I decided Onyx would be a good candidate but I wanted to have her go in on her own volition.  I took the tote and rolled down the sides so it would be inviting then threw in a toy mouse for good measure.  The trap was set now to wait.  Ten seconds went by and Kes was in investigating but decided that it wasn’t so interesting.  That was a bit of a surprise to me because she loves plastic bags and will claim anything plastic as her throne.  A minute later and Onyx came by.  She hopped right in just as I had suspected she would.  She even did me the favor of facing outward away from the wall so I could take her picture.  She had a grand old time batting the toy mouse in the tote.  I let her relax in there for a bit and then it was picture time: Cat in the bag!  I had my husband take photos to show the process of turning the tote bed into a tote bag with a kitty in it.  It was a pretty cool set of sequence photos except that I had left the camera in manual mode and all of them were completely blurry!  I really wanted to show them here but it’ll have to be a project for another day.

I have one more plarn tote that still has to be completed but first I’m crocheting a small plarn basket.  A week ago I decided I wanted a washline for the backyard so we can harness the power of the sun and save some $ on electricity.  We got a pretty cool system of a retractable line that I can just take inside with me when I’m done.  Now using a washline requires washpins and these require some kind of storage.  I’ve been wanting to crochet with a plarn that isn’t made of white bags so I prepared some brown Home Depot style bags for this project.  I found a cute pattern from the Chickpea Sewing Studio.  Of course I realize the basket they show is so much cuter than mine will be in that funny brown color.  I’m not going to make mine as tall as theirs.  I’ll probably test along the way to see if all the pins fit in the bag.  I might also make it wider so it’s easier to reach into.  I’ve started on the bottom rounds and think I’ve already missed a few stitches here and there, nothing drastic though.  That’s what I get for doing it while watching TV.   I’ll post a picture of it part way through at a later time.  The Home Depot bags are crocheting very nice.  The strips are about 3/4 inch wide which seems to be my preference.  Now I’m getting all fired up to work on it again but sadly breakfast and a shower come first before today’s errands.  Crocheting will have to wait until this afternoon.

I‘m still on my amigurumi kick and now I’ve combined it with my cat kick.  I spent an afternoon scouring the net for cat amigurumis with some luck.  I found one cat that I thought was really cute but no pattern.  I decided to try it as my first adventure into making my own thing patternless.  The body and legs are super cute but then it was time to make the head.  I decided not too seek out a basic head pattern from another book which lead to me crocheting half a head and then pulling it all out to try again.  The poor cat nearly had a flat pancake for a head.  I see my understanding of going in the round to create a sphere isn’t quite up to par yet.  I tried again with better luck, no more pancake head.  Nope, now the cat has a slight conehead.  Oh well, a good adventure into making a head.  Then I had to figure out how to make an ear.  The ears are nice triangles but a bit on the long side, almost batty.  The next time I adventure into making my own head I will probably look at patterns for heads I’ve made before to avoid mis-shapen craniums.  I do very much love the little white ends on the feet, for me this is the key to cuteness is this kitty.

After that misadventure into patternless amigurumi making I tackled another cat.  The pattern I found at MarmaladeRose’s blog was a conversion from knit into crochet and very cute.  I started working on the pattern and after a few rows of the body realized that it was double crochet which wouldn’t stuff nicely.  I also had the problem of not having a small enough hook.  I was using a 3.75/F hook when it called for a 3mm hook.  The next smallest hook I have is a 2.25/B1 hook which is a lot smaller than a 3mm.  With the F hook it was going to be very large and have too much space between the double crochets in my opinion.  I pulled it out and switched to the 2.25mm hook and decided that I’d attempt to work the pattern in single crochet.  The pattern that MarmaladeRose made includes some great photos to help you along.  I’m such a visual learner that I was quite happy to just figure it out from the pictures.

I started by crocheting the head and then I went onto the body.  I sewed up the body and stuffed it up.  I was happy already with the turn out.  Then I sewed up and stuffed the head.  Oh my!  It was way too big which was really scary.  I sewed the head on anyways to see if maybe I could manipulate it in some way.  No dice.  I wish I had taken a picture of it but it just rubbed me to wrong way to even do that.  I decided to detach the head and pull it all out.  This was a lot of fun since I had already woven the ends in and hidden them nicely.  Patience my friend.

I started again on the head this time comparing it to the body size.  This whole ordeal was something like 2 hours of detatching and reworking but with successful results!  All I needed then was a tail which was like the cherry on top.  The next day I did a little photoshoot with my crochet kitty, my real cats and some afternoon sun.  Couldn’t be better.

My husband now wants me to crochet  one in black to be our little Onyx.  LOL!

I talked about our experience with VAS in my cat Kes the other day.  Through the Yahoo Support Group I’ve joined up with Samantha who created the Three Paws for the Cause Cafepress shop.  In her shop I’ve added products with new VAS, Kobi Fund and FVEAP merchandise from shirts to cat food bowls.  I love the ThreePaws shop because the profits generated go straight to the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program (FVEAP) and the Kobi Fund.  What I love most of all is that every purchase means someone has now learned about VAS and is going to spread awareness.  I’ve really enjoyed creating all the graphics and products for the shop and the cause.  If you purchase anything feel free to share a photo of your new goodies!

Below is a slide show of some of the products available in the shop:

Go to ImageShack® to Create your own Slideshow

Kes, the Maine Coon

This post is all about cats and a cancer that hit close to home.  My husband and I have 2 cats, one Maine Coon called Kes(age 5) and a black American Short Hair called Onyx(age 4).  Last year around this time we were faced with something completely unexpected: cancer.  In March 2009 I discovered a lump on Kes’ left hind leg.  I watched it for 3 weeks and was shocked at how fast it grew.  When I first discovered it it was the size of a grape.  The cats were due for their shots and a check up so we all went to the vet.  I asked them to check out the leg and the vet said it could be one of two things; a very old fracture that has now calcification built around it, or a very rare form of cancer.  We decided to biopsy it very shortly after and by then the tumor was nearly the size of a golf ball.  It took only 3 to 4 weeks for the tumor to nearly double in size.  The tumor didn’t cause Kes any discomfort or trouble with her mobility but it would have to go.

The biopsy results came in: stage 2 vaccine associated fibro-sarcoma, or VAS.  The vet told us the most successful treatment of VAS in the leg was amputation.  What a shock we had hearing those words.  My husband and I scoured the internet for more knowledge and understanding of this cancer growing on Kes’ leg as we had a very short time to make the decision.  Everything I found agreed with the vet; amputation is Kes’ best chance of surviving this monster.  This left me wanting to know how a three legged cat makes its way through daily life.  I wasn’t too uncomfortable with the idea but I was still curious.  I searched for videos and pictures about tripod cats and what the surgery experience would be like.  I didn’t find as much as I would have liked which gave me the idea to document our experiences to share with others facing the same situation.  My first video is about the biopsy and diagnosis.

Kes Versus the Monster Part 1

We went ahead with the surgery.  Kes is a young, vivacious character and wouldn’t let something like the loss of a leg slow her down.  She was very healthy with the exception of the tumor and we felt that there was no reason to skip the surgery and doom her to an early death without cause.  On April 28th, 2009 she had her surgery.  The vet called after the surgery and said she did very well, and that even though she was supposed to be taking it easy she was already trying to move around.  They kept her for one night and called us the next morning with more good news that she was doing well, and that she would do even better at home.  She was too active at the vet to rest properly and they felt she might be calmer at home.  We prepared the guestroom for her with blankets and pillows all over the floor.  We made some dark hiding places for her as well.  She came home and wanted a lot of love.  She was on two medications, one for pain and another for inflammation. The pain medication didn’t agree with her very well so we lowered the dosage, then she could actually rest.  The incision was 5 inches and 21 stitches. My second video is about the amputation and first 5 days of recovery.

Kes Versus the Monster Part 2

She managed to get around okay and use the litter box without a problem.  She wasn’t going to take no for an answer and worked out how to move around on 3 legs quite quickly.  One of the biggest hurdles was how to get up from laying down.  She would get frustrated and mutter all sorts of cat profanity which would sound like a small cat fight.  When she attempted to get up she would often end up spinning in circles for a bit, which, surprisingly, wasn’t the part that really frustrated her.  In time she got better at it and there was less angry muttering.  To accommodate her loss of a rear leg we had to construct ways for her to get up to where she wanted to be, such as on the guest bed or near the window.  We made steps using boxes covered in brown paper.  A year later she now has no trouble jumping up to somethings that she struggled with at first.  We use the steps primarily in the living room so she doesn’t tear into the leather couches- ouch!  My third video is about further recovery.

Kes Versus the Monster Part 3

VAS is a type of cancer that can occur in the injection site for rabies and Feline Leukemia anywhere from a month to years later.  The cancer is rare but not to be ignored, it isn’t called “The Monster” for nothing.  This cancer is very aggressive and can grow quickly and become much more dangerous than our experience.  An experienced vet is necessary for surgery in order to get clean margins as the cancer can have microscopic tendrils growing outward from the tumor.  If anything is left behind you’ll be sure to know with the occurrence of a new more aggressive tumor not too long after surgery. Some cats require chemo and or radiation as well as surgery.  Some cases the tumor is inoperable but the chemo and radiation can be an option.  In less fortunate situations the tumor is discovered too late and families then make the decision to care for their feline friend until the tumor is too much to bear and the quality of life is no longer adequate.

The two most common locations for VAS are the legs or the scruff.  There has been an adjustment to the vaccination protocol since the discovery of fibrosarcomas related to vaccines in 1996.  All vaccines are to be given in the leg!  If a tumor is to occur, the leg can be amputated easily.  If the tumor occurs in the scruff amputation is no longer an option to prevent the spread of the fibrosarcoma.  If you are a cat owner take this tidbit of information away with you to day: Protect your cat, know vaccination protocol: vaccines should be only given in the leg.

April 1, 2010 starts my personal campaign to spread the awareness of VAS.  If you or someone you know is worried about a tumor go to your vet ASAP.  I also highly, highly recommend the Yahoo Support group, I couldn’t have made it through the experience without all of the wonderful people in the group.