Mostly Mouses

I finished the green Stripe Study last week. I think I'm pleased with it, although since it's for someone else I won't know until I've seen it on her. I only did eleven stripes instead of twelve because I thought that Felted Tweed and 5mm needles would make it a lot bigger than sock yarn on 4mm needles, but there doesn't seem to be much difference and I think it would have been fine with twelve.

I gave it a soak and dried it flat. It grew much more sideways than it did lengthways, but I don't know if this is because of the Felted Tweed or because of the garter stitch.

On both of my Stripe Studies, the spine has a pronounced curve: I must do my M1Ls more tightly than my M1Rs.

I made a swatch with some of the ripped-out Summer Tweed and decided that although knots were the way to go, the yarn doesn't work with this pattern so it'll have to be something else.

 I was going to say that I fell off the yarn wagon again, but I don't think I could convincingly say that I have been on it for a while: suffice to say that I got come lovely Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Well Water, from a Ravelry destash. I suspect that well water is actually a murky greenish black, but the yarn is a lovely dark watery blue and is destined for another Stripe Study.

This yarn is not a lot of fun to wind into a ball as it kinks and knots and eludes you, but it is lovely to knit with so it's all right in the end. It took me an eternity to choose the other colour, and it is now on its way across the seas. I didn't want to start a project that would only have to be interrupted when the parcel arrives, but fortunately one of my friends got a new kitten and I decided that a catnip mouse was required.

One thing led to another...

 And another...

And before I knew it, there was a family...

This is the Embellished Catnip Mouse Toy, and the ears are knitted in, so clever. I only knit bobbles for people that I love very much, and cats. There are eyes in the pattern as well but I preferred this streamlined look. These ones are waiting to be stuffed and sewn up, apart from the tiny grey one which is made from Wollmeise in Maus Jung (har har) on 2mm needles. All the rest are knitted on 3mm.

You can knit one up in no time and within minutes it can be torn apart by its tiny owner.