Tiger and Mina

Happy International Cat Day! Or so it says on Facebook. By happy coincidence it occurs just in time to post the pictures of my recent (crazy) crochet cat creations.

It started when I made little Marmalade, following instruction from the Cube Cat video by Happy Berry Crochet and having quite a nice stash of Catona cotton…

Then the orders started to flood in and more little characters came through using the stitch count and model as a basis but with the freer approach of mixing colours as I went along. I used tapestry crochet, embroidery or sometimes a spot of surface crochet. One band friend has ordered four cats! It started to look like a cat factory at times:

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Then I couldn’t resist the pattern by a favourite designer on Etsy, ATERGcrochet. Greta creates wonderful cheerful crochet patterns and I just loved her larger cat design. I made a bit of modification, mostly with the positioning and length of tail but I was so pleased with Chester and Hilda pictured on my balcony in sunny Stockholm:

And then some more orders and some more improvisation to create a medium sized cat based on the larger but this time I used a unused small circle of crochet work as the base and went for stripes and blocks and did some guesswork on when to do the decrease shaping. So Primrose came to be (another order):

And a friend ordered a black and white kitty in remembrance of her beloved cat. He survived the Swedish post and made it to his happy owner:

Then my dear sambo set off for a month to Germany so I thought he should have a small travel.companion, Günther:

It has been summer holidays but I am still struggling with a combination of severe (and persistent) asthma, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and repeatedly getting chest and / or sinus and ear infections. I really hope to get back to my work and life as a musician soon. Realistically I have had to accept I can’t play clarinet and saxophone (not yet) and I will have to give up some wonderful playing opportunity this autumn. Acceptance and disappointment. I intend to concentrate on recovery and teaching at the studio and the quite exciting prospect continuing s Assistant Conductor to two orchestras.  While visiting my parents and cats, I got some company while doing score study. Mina purred and dribbled enthusiastically to the Swedish composer Stenhammar:

Of course an English girl in Sweden still needs her fix of tea. Citrus green tea and honey also helps the tired asthmatic. Inspired by the Bright Citrus, Lipton came just the other day prompting an order for a similarly zesty feline:

So in some ways life is “cat-astrophic” plagued by poor health but I have enjoyed the chance to combine my love of crochet and cats. I hope you enjoy and if you have a cat, give them an extra back-of-the-ear-scratch today.

Crazy cat lady signing off.