Best in Show: Knit Your Own Cat

Best in Show knit your own cat

To our families, who made all the right noises when we showed them each new cat.

First published in the United Kingdom in 2011 by Collins & Brown 10 Southcombe Street London W14 0RA An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd Copyright Š Collins & Brown 2011 Text and pattern copyright Š Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne 2011 Photography by Holly Jolliffe All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The patterns contained in this book and the items created from them are for personal use only. Commercial use of either the patterns or items made from them is strictly prohibited.

ISBN 978-1-84340-662-4 A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Reproduction by Rival Colour Ltd, UK Printed and bound by 1010 Printing International Ltd, China This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at www.anovabooks.com

Best in Show knit your own cat Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne

COLLINS & BROWN

Contents 6

Introduction

8 10 20 26 32

Long-haired Persian Ragdoll Maine Coon Turkish Van

38 40 48 56

Short-haired Kittens British Shorthair Devon Rex

62 64 72 80 86

Exotic Abyssinian Burmese Bengal Siamese

94 96 102 112 122 128

Street Ginger Black & White Tabby Black Cat Tortoiseshell

140 141 142 144 144

Hints Methods Index of cats Resources Acknowledgements

Introduction Cats are the planet’s most popular pet: there are 500 million domestic cats. We are a world of cat lovers, although with some exceptions – Genghis Khan, Hitler, Mussolini and Napoleon Bonaparte are all reputed to have been cat haters...draw your own conclusions. The knitted cat has many of the advantages but none of the drawbacks of the live version. The knitted feline, like the real thing, will sit around looking beautiful and accept your devotion graciously, but it won’t claw the furniture, climb the curtains, or bring in halfdead animals and deposit them at your feet.

Our patterns are for all levels of skill; try starting with a one-colour cat, such as the Burmese, Devon Rex, Kittens, Black Cat, or British Shorthair. Once you are confident move onto the Siamese, Black & White, Turkish Van, Abyssinian, Tortoiseshell and Ragdoll, and then tackle the trickiest – the Persian, Tabby, Maine Coon, Marmalade and Bengal. Read through the hints section on page 140 before you start, as the suggestions given will make your cat-knitting easier.

Most domestic cats aren’t pedigree, so rather than covering a lot of different breeds of cat, we have chosen a selection – some pedigree, some not – and shown them in 6

different poses. We have tried to make our cats as realistic as possible, but do feel free to make our patterns your own: change the colours, the size, make them fatter or thinner, taller or shorter. Leave the tail off if you have a Manx or Bobtail cat, fold down the ears for a Scottish Fold, and make considerably shorter legs for a Munchkin.

You can make bigger cats if you prefer using thicker yarn and larger needles, and you don’t have to stick to the materials that we suggest, you can use any yarn that you have lying around. The stitches used to knit the cats are fairly basic, you don’t have to be an expert knitter, and the cats are small and so can be made fairly quickly.

We really want you to enjoy making these cats. Knit your own beloved, or the cat you have always wanted but are allergic to, recreate the cat you had as a child, make one for a friend whose cat has died (but who doesn’t want to have it stuffed), knit one cat or make them all and be a knitting Pussy Galore.

Joanna and Sally

12

Long-

Index of cats 16

haired

22

28

34

42

45

50

Shorthaired

53

58

66

Exotic

142

74

77

82

69

88

98

91

Street

104

108

114

124

130

134

118

143