I really like my cat MacKenzie. I found him one day standing in a cage at PetsMart. The previous owner had walked in and surrendered him a few weeks previously. You guessed it: he was a bad boy. He was such an obviously intelligent cat I decided to take a chance and brought him home with me.
Oh dear, there was not a surface of the house that he didn’t try to sharpen his claws on. He knocked things down and broke china. He tore up my plants, dragged his toys all over the house, and was in general an instrument of mayhem. I bought more toys, got scratching posts for almost every room of the house, adopted a second cat to be a companion to him, and gave him yarn to play with. I wired the backyard fence with an “invisible fence” wire and trained him to not jump out of the yard so he could run laps out there. He became a happy cat. My walls and furniture were safe again; he now loved all things wool.
Now that I’m retired and he is older, he is my constant companion and participates a little more in my craft activities than I would like. As usual, he was involved in my latest Hitchhiker.
Yep. That’s why all my knitted gifts come with love and cat hair. The weather was really nice again today so I ate lunch outside and knitted the Hitchhiker for a couple of hours until it was done. Snow is coming Sunday, so I decided to enjoy the nice weather and get some sunshine while I could.
I’m thinking that maybe I should make him a wool cat bed. He would enjoy helping with that!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Beautiful companion to have on such a fun pattern. I completed Hitchhiker last fall and its a great shawl/shawlette. Hope you continue to enjoy both.
Thank you!
He’s beautiful. Love your pics. I need to try the hitchhiker pattern. It’s lovely.
Would you believe that I already cast on another one? This may be like socks; I cast on the new one as soon as I finish a pair.
I can see why! It shows off the noro beautifully, and because of the edging, it would disrupt pooling tendencies in other yarns. I think I’ve just talked myself into casting this on next!
The yarn also doesn’t pool because the stitch count keeps increasing. The garter stitch also helps show off handpainted yarns. By the way, I just bought yarn to make your half-finger gloves. Red alpaca. 🙂
Oooo. Those gloves would be lovely with a soft red alpaca! I look forward to pics. 🙂 After I finish my dragon sweater, I’m going to cast on a hitchhiker shawl with one of my hand-painted yarns.
Everything I knit has a little dog hair, a little cat hair and more often than not, a little me hair. Just one more service I offer!
I love it! I also provide full service knitwear. A smugly superior knitter at a craft show told me I couldn’t sell if I had animals in the house. What do you think about that?
I’ve got Hitchhiker on the needles right now! Love those colors in yours!
I just started another one. They sure are addictive!
That scarf is wonderful, it would go with pretty much everything I own. I wish I had any talent in this area. I have it on my “goals” board: watch a “learn to knit” video. I need to get on it! And I love your Mackenzie story, you’re a wonderful cat mom. I picked my cat Milo out from the pound because he was the one who was scratching at the newspaper in his cage, a habit he still indulges in 15 years down the road. I love how you worked with his smart lil brain and found how to make him happy. I’m sure you got as much out of the relationship as he did, if you two are anything like Milo n me. Thanks for a post that made me smile – and rekindled my crafty heart!!
Thank heavens for the internet! I got online to find info on behavior management for cats, help with scratching, etc. MacKenzie is such a presence in my life I’m thinking that I need to add his name to the blog title. Glad that you have also had a very successful cat rescue.
If you do learn to knit (love those online tutorials!) Hitchhiker is an extremely easy pattern to make. You only have to knit (no purls), the pattern is easy to remember, and with the right yarn it is very versatile. The pattern is on Ravelry, but if you search for Hitchhiker shawl you’ll find it.