Melody's Kitty

Look who's come to hang around our house for a while. It's Sailor, the Sleepy Cat.

I found this adorable crochet pattern through a designer I follow on Instagram. @FireFlyCrochets is her company moniker. She creates whimsical amigurumi animals and gnomes. I bought this cat pattern from her Etsy shop as a downloadable .pdf file.

The quality of this pattern is superb. There are 16 pages of detailed instructions with wonderful, clear photos of each step. 

Due to supply chain issues, I wasn't able to get the exact soft yarn I wanted. But I was able to find some Red Heart Super Saver yarn in white, light grey and dark grey. I had a partial skein of Red Heart Soft yarn in black.

I gathered the rest of the supplies from my stash, including a soft pink yarn, my hooks, a yarn needle, and some stitch counters. The kitty is fluffed up with polyester fiberfill.

Amigurumi crochet uses small, tight stitches to give the softies some structure. This kitty was all done in single crochet using this size E hook. Each body part begins with a magic circle, rather than a chain. 

This kind of small, tight stitching in the round with lots of color change is still fairly new to me. It took a lot of concentration which never quite helped me get into that nice meditative state that crochet usually leads me to. In fact, sewing all the parts together and adding the facial details was rather anxiety-producing. I was all itchy and sweaty by the time I finally put in the last stitches.

I am pleased with the outcome. My kitty doesn't quite look like the original, but she'll do. She'll hang out with Dale and me for a month or so, then will be delivered to her real owner. Our granddaughter Melody will receive the kitty on her 5th birthday.

Rest well, little one.