Love this. LOVE THIS. I probably won’t make it again though, it’s a bit tedious and a little tricky in some places. Definitely not a beginner pattern. You really need lots of confidence to get through this one (in my opinion). Here’s a sampling of techniques you’ll need:

• The “joints” in each leg are formed from small 3-needle bind offs (mid-round).
• Much of the shaping is from short rows (performed in the round).
• The belly is seamed together with the back/sides (those sections are knitted flat) to accomodate the different colors (could also modify this to work in the round).
• There are several parts to the project that involve picking up stitches (the correct number in the right spots - can be tricky if you don’t know what you are doing).
• The pattern doesn’t give much guidance on when to weave in yarn ends, but I recommend not waiting until the end, too hard to weave in at that point. Do them as you go (once you are sure you aren’t going to make a mistake and need to frog, LOL!). The yarn I used is really “sticky” and honestly doesn’t need much weaving… it kind of felts to itself.
• So, if you’re game for all of that, go for it :D

Some tips:

• After starting the project, leave one of the yarn tails from the cast on (the one on the edge of the piece) for tacking the neck hole shut (which you do at start of back). Can weave the other two ends from the original cast on to get them out of the way.
• Before starting the front legs, can keep the belly yarn ball (here, white) attached while working legs. Will make it so you don’t have to reattach yarn for belly.
• Begin stuffing the paws before you seam things up. Stuffing the entire cat through the hole between the legs isn’t that easy.
• The designer noted to stuff the legs very lightly (or not at all in the lower sections). I stuffed the entire leg, but only a little in the lower legs (more in the paws).
• The paired ssk/k2tog decreases in the head formed a ladder of stitches for me, which was really annoying, and made the kitty look like an angry owl. I used something similar to a duplicate stitch (sorta) to close up that gap. MUCH IMPROVED. I inserted before/after pics with notes so you can see what I mean.

As with the tuxedo kitty (linked to my projects), this is an extremely well-written pattern with so many advanced techniques. This designer is absolutely brilliant! For me, the intarsia (those sections were knitted flat) was the trickiest, annoying to keep the yarn balls (3) straight and untangled.

Highly recommend this Icelandic wool for the cat - looks more like fur with how fuzzy it is! Although, CAREFUL when tugging on yarn with this yarn, it breaks very easily since it’s not really spun.

Given to my brother, he named her. This was not intentional, but does look a lot like the cat from the Smurfs! Same color :D