I was given 7 skeins of chenille “Fun, Mesh Scarf yarn” recently – a barista at our Sunday morning Guilty Knitters Coffee shop had rescued it from the bin when a friend’s shop was shutting down.
She thought of us knitters and I wasn’t going to let the fact it was truly “Fugly” yarn make me waste a generous gift. (NOTE: Fugly = “Flipping Ugly” or sometimes the language is stronger…)
The colours were not bad – Black, White and Grey but the yarn – Urgh! It is pure synthetic and the type of meshy yarn used to make fro-fro flouncy scarves. About as far from my taste in knitting and scarves as you can get!
This is the yarn construction…
I was pondering how to best this yarn when Ziggy saw the skeins on the floor. She purred. She pummeled it. She then scrabbled it into a nest, curled up and slept on it.
So. Cat Blankie it was!
Rather than use the mesh properties of the yarn I decided to treat it as one very thick stand and knit it on my thickest needles – 20mm. Knitting it was a performance piece and amused the Guilty Knitters! It made my arms ache to do but the fabric was lovely and dense and squishy – Purr-fect for lazy cats…
This was not the situation for clever patterns or stitch details – a garter stitch square it was!
To make sure I used all the yarn but made the biggest cat blankie possible, I used the technique I last used on my conservatory cushion’s back and knit diagonally…
i.e start with one stitch – increase at the end of every row – when half the yarn is used, start decreasing at the end of every row – you end up with a perfect square 😀
I was cautious and had a little left over so I made some cat-toy pompoms for the corners. I’m really please I didn’t let my “yarn snobby” first impressions get in the way of my imagination.
But the real question is, did Ziggy and Kitty approve?
I’ll let you decide…
Completed Knit Report | ||
Name: | Cat Blankie | |
Pattern: | Made up (20mm, garter stitch – inc end every row to middle then dec end of every row) | |
Yarn: | Gifted unknow acrylic novelty chenille scarf yarn | |
Pattern Problems: | A little shedding at first from the cut ends (esp the pompoms) | |
Pattern Modifications: | None | |
Washing and Wearing: | I suspect it’s synthetic qualities will make it indestructable by cat claw or washing mashine and it probably has a half life of at least 2000 years…. | |
Knit It Again???: | Yes, if I’m ever given more fugly yarn… | |
Difficulty: | 1/5 | |
Rating: | 5/5 (from Ziggy and Kitty) | |
Other Postings Relating To This One: | None |
It looks like the perfect squishy, cosy blanket for your girls. I am NOT showing it to Flo, or I know what will be on her Christmas list!!
Pure genius!
You’ve made a bad thing good!
Oh that’s brilliant! The kitties look so content.
purrfect:)
Oh my word, wow! I’ve only just gotten around to reading this post & it’s fab. My partners 98 year old grandma gave me 3 balls of purple Fugly with a pattern (gross) but I know what to do now. It will be veritable a sensation for Harvey’s paws! Thank you.