Victorian Cat KAL and Doodle Classes
My Sister Knits has the cutest book! It’s titled Victorian Housecats to Knit, written by Sara Elizabeth Kellner. This beautiful book tells the story of the Morgan family’s 20 cats and has a pattern for each. You could knit the Parlour Cat, the Nursery Kittens, the Window Cat, or Miss Trudie’s Tortie, along with sixteen others!
As a general rule, these patterns use aran or bulky weight yarn. The Library Cat and the Nursery Kittens use worsted weight and the Tiny Parlour Cat uses fingering. The cats need to be knit at a tight gauge to prevent the stuffing from showing, so they’re knit using smaller needles than you’d think.
Grandad’s Silver Tabby pattern
Speaking of gauge, Sara does not give a gauge number for the cats. She wants us to use smaller needles with thicker yarn to create a fabric that is tighter than it would be for a garment.
The patterns range in difficulty and, as such, are available for almost any knitter with some experience to complete. They are written line by line and there are detailed Pattern Notes at the beginning of the book.
CaMaRose Snefnug would make a soft kitty.
We think these cats are so cute that we’re hosting a Knit A-Long (KAL)! We invite you to join us for four Tuesday evenings from 5:30 - 8:00; Sept. 16, 23, 30, and Oct. 7. All you need to bring is the book and your knitting supplies! You can reserve a spot in the KAL and a book by calling the shop, 970.407.1461. The only cost to joining the KAL is the book as KALs do not offer specific instruction. Usually knitters are willing to help each other a bit but everyone is there to knit!
These colors of CaMaRose Midnatssol would be perfect for Miss Trudy’s Tortie! Three strands are used throughout; two darks and one light.
You may notice that we have two classes with Doodle cards in October. Learn to Doodle, taught by yours truly, is a workshop where we will go over every aspect of working with the Doodle cards: choosing your base pattern, your charts, a color palette, and more but there will be no knitting. Halloween Doodle Cozy, taught by Erika, is actually knitting a cup cozy using Doodle stranded colorwork patterns. My workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 7th will be a great introduction. Then you can take Erika’s class on Saturday, Oct. 18th to put it all into practice!
Blue Sky Fibers Techno would make a lovely cat!
We invite you into the shop to ooohhh and aaahhh over the book and decide which cat you’d like to make! Then you can take a look around for the yarn you’d like to use. We are always happy to help with yarn decisions, just ask!
Happy knitting,
