Hi. I’m Hannah.
The kitten and I have been helping the Mother of Cats knit her latest shawl for weeks now. It has been lots of hard work, especially since the kitten forgets to behave himself and starts carrying off the balls of yarn. I have talked to him about this, but he is just too crazy wild to really settle down. The proper etiquette is to sit on top of the knitting, purr like crazy, and to snag any moving yarn in your claws when you can… If the Mother of Cats accidently leaves the knitting downstairs you can drag it up the stairs to return to her, but not the balls of yarn. Especially if you forget what you are doing and leave the yarn balls in some strange place. Sigh. It is so hard to raise a kitten.
Anyway, the shawl is called the Snark-O-Meter and it is designed by another cat!!! This cat, Sharon from Security, is the employee of Casapinka and seems to be a little tiny bit hard to work with. She is always complaining and dealing with the misbehavior of her fellow employees and never has enough sushi. Also she keeps losing her squad car… and her subordinate Finn (who has a shady background and multiple passports) is also gone. You wouldn’t believe how she talks to the knitters, too! Talk about snark!!
Oh. I guess that is why it is called the Snark-O-Meter.
The Mother of Cats finished the Snark-O-Meter this week and left me alone with the kitten to go buy some blocking mats and more pins to use. Oh, my goodness, the blocking mats are the most fun ever!! The kitten and I were so excited to see them. The kitten chewed as many corners as he could get his little chompers onto while I rolled around and did a little cat yoga.
Then the Mother of Cats and we got serious and worked on blocking the shawl. She had made a little test sample to make sure the colors wouldn’t run when wet and tried to lay it out on the mat.
Tried. Yep. The minute the kitten saw the loose strings of that sample he began swapping at them. Then I grabbed the sample to groom it a little… did I mention that I just love wet yarn? Besides, it needs to get smoothed down and dried a little… The Mother of Cats tried to pin it and the kitten pulled out the pins to drag off and play with. The Mother of Cats decided that the yarns weren’t going to run (this is true… I never saw them move at all) and put the sample away in a cupboard. That was okay, because then she started putting the shawl out on the cat yoga mats.
The Mother of Cats didn’t like how saggy the yarns in the sample were when wet so she decided to spray the shawl really well with water and then lightly steam it. This was not funny!!! She put in some pins, sprayed water everywhere, and then put in even more pins all around the shawl. Then she hovered the steam iron all around the shawl to make the lace look nice.
Then the Mother of Cats layered towels on top of the wet shawl and sprinkled some yoga mats on top of that so we wouldn’t sleep on top of the shawl. I slept on top of everything anyway. Did I mention that I love the smell of wet wool?
The next day the Mother of Cats took all the mats and towels off the shawl and the kitten and I helped her take all of the pins off and the mats apart. You would not believe how fast the kitten can pull out the pins to take away as toys. Sigh. I’m going to have a little talk with him again. I do have to say that the little corners of the mats are fun to chew on, though. The kitten is a lot of work, but he is fun too and sometimes has some really good ideas.
Last night the Mother of Cats took the shawl over to her son’s for a visit and the kitten and I got to chase each other around like crazy all night. The shawl looked really nice as she packed it up to take to the car. Of course. This was a cat written and cat produced knitted item of beauty.
Note from the Mother of Cats:
The kitten Mateo is growing at an alarming clip and is now filling out and growing a longer coat than I expected. He is a really good natured little guy and makes little chirping noises as he runs around the house, and of course he is a great playmate for Hannah. He is now 6 months old and will certainly be a bigger cat than Hannah.
Don’t you think he looks a little like a bear?
Here is the finished shawl modeled by one of my son’s cats.
I have another one of these shawls to finish up. The cats can’t wait for me to pull it out and get going again because blocking the last one was so much fun!!!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
The SOM is GORGEOUS, Marilyn – just .. wonderful !
Hannah is, too; and Mateo is going to be a total long-hair.
I am so happy with the SOM. I am just finishing up my little short sleeved sweater and will be getting going on the second SOM now that I know how great it is going to look.
I had a Maine coon cat before and it was just a nightmare handling his coat: he would mat overnight no matter how much a groomed him and then I had to shave his coat every summer while he just wailed and the other cat (MacKenzie) became more and more agitated. I specifically got a kitten that was supposed to be medium haired and yet, here I am again! He is so handsome and good natured I think that all will be well. He is looking an awful lot like a Maine coon now and his paws are totally covered in fur.
Uh-oh ..
That shawl is gorgeous. Love your color choices!
Thank you! They were all yarns that were languishing in my stash that I loved but didn’t quite know what to do with (well, the white and red ones, for sure). I’m really pleased that this MKAL showed them off so well. I wear a lot of grey and black so I will get a lot of use out of this shawl this winter.
Oh Hannah, your posts are very entertaining so I’m always glad when the mother of cats lets you post. Mateo looks like he is getting the lions share of your resting area and what a fluffy tail he has. I’m with you with the smell of wet wool, I love it too. The SOM shawl looks amazing and all your hard work in helping with the project I’m sure is appreciated, a bit sneaky of Jonesy to come in after all the hard work has been done and then set up home on it.
Hannah: thank you! It is so much fun to help out with the Mother of Cats knitting, especially when it leads to wet wool and a day of cat yoga! I tried to model the shawl for her but the kitten is just TOO WILD FOR WORDS and we couldn’t get it done here so Jonesy had to step in. He’s a really sweet boy even if he’s a funny color.
You make a great blogger Hannah. Mother of Cats you are incredibly patient. I thought it was a duck modelling that shawl which is splendid despite all the feline input.
Hannah: thank you! I haven’t had a lot of experience writing and now I have my hands full with the kitten. I’ll try to share a little more often now that I have a “voice”.
Now that Hannah has grown up and has a more established personality I’ll try to blog with her more. The problem: it is really hard to get good pictures of black cats and almost impossible to get a shot of the kitten since he is always in motion!
🙂
Cats and knitting: two of my favorite subjects! I’m enjoying watching Mateo grow, and Hannah seems so mature now. Your shawl is really pretty, too!
Hannah is now 18 months old and the stablizing influence in the life of Mateo. Since Hannah has a really sweet personality it is working out really well. Both cats let me knit which is just amazing! Now if only one of them was happy to have me pick them up… This is my second MKAL Casapinka shawl and I am happy with how she combines the colors and textures.
Cats and yarn. A timeless attraction. Beautiful knits. Beautiful cats.
Thank you.
Beautiful work!
Hannah: Mother of Cats is really lucky to have you to help her with knitting and with your kitten! I love hearing from you 🙂
MOC: Your shawl is just lovely! Love hearing about the cats and their adventures, and of course seeing your knitting progress 🙂
I will try to get the cats to blog more. It is hard to get a good picture when they are mostly black and one of them is ALWAYS in motion! Hopefully it will get easier as the kitten gets older. Thank you for the feedback on the shawl. Casapinka really outdid herself with this one.
You take beautiful pictures of them! I’m sure they are in motion a lot 🙂 Your shawl is lovely!
I pretty much keep my phone near me always and then grab a photo when the light catches them just right so that the features show up. Well, they also have to be still. 🙂
🙂