The cat stitch blanket

There was a time when I wanted to make blankets but didn't have anyone to make one for (dont think that will ever happen again!) so I asked my lovely friend Dawn who runs the Ragdoll Rescue if they could use some blankets for the cats. She said that would be great and asked if I could have them ready and take them to their annual fundraising garden party.

I immediately set to work on a cheery large granny square blanket, quickly hooking my way around and around when I realised I didn't know how big to make it. When you look at the general blanket size guides they have dimensions for baby blankets, single bed coverlets etc, but there's never a 'cat blanket' guide! This is what lead me to Google 'cat blanket' and I came across this site-
http://beautifulcrochetstuff.com/abstract-crochet-cats-pattern/

I was stopped in my tracks- I had to try this stitch and it would be perfect for a cat blanket. I loved how the paws of one cat made the ears of the cat below, so simple and so eye-catching. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I'm a magpie for cat related items. I can spend hours searching internet clothing shops just searching for items with cats on to dress my daughter in. This blanket design had me at the first glance and I had to make it. Now I'm not very confident following written patterns, it's something I'm working on, but I won't deny I prefer a YouTube tutorial any day. Luckily there is one-

This just left me to pick the colour scheme, the pattern seemed to call for simplicity here, less colours will work better, so I picked a couple of my favorite purples- lavender and violet, and parchment seemed to work well to set them off.

It turned out that this is another one of those- looks complicated but actually isn't. Once I'd completed the first couple of rows, my fingers were doing it by themselves. In no time at all I had reached what I believed was a suitable length (I never did find a cat blanket size guide) and it was finished. A quick simple border around the outside and ta-dah! Another blanket done with another great sense of achievement.

This was one of three blankets I took down to the rescue, firmly believing that they were going to line the cats beds and keep them warm. So it took me by surprise to find Dawn was actually putting them in the charity auction. Unfortunately we had to leave before this 'lot' came up due to childcare commitments, but Dawn informed me afterwards that they made a nice little sum for the rescue. Warm and fuzzy feeling inside was back.

Although it's a good few months away I'm already putting together my ideas for this years donation, you can be sure it will be something cat related again!