The sheep I’ve been working on since around book fair time is close to finished. He’s only missing a head and ears. Oh, and a tail.

Disassembled toys can be confusing to look at. Or maybe just disturbing.

I used Henry’s Attic Pigtail for his wooly bits. While I like the effect, I’ll need a great deal of incentive to work with chenille for a toy again. Pigtail listed as an Aran weight yarn, but that’s got to be a mistake.

It only shed when I wound it up.

This stuff is thick with plush – the sheep’s body has ended up enormous and actually ran out of yarn and ended up needing to order more for his head. I should have been able to make two sheep out of 194 yards! Even with that frustration, Pigtail still wins the award for Best in Chenille. The woven core (instead a central ply) means absolutely no worming*! The finished fabric is dense and heavy but not stiff. And it’s very very plushy. Working with it is still hard on the wrists, but might not be so bad on a much larger needle as a throw or something.

When this sheep is finished, I’ve got another Ginger Cat to make. Then maybe I can get back to the pattern I abandoned months ago…or maybe not. Maybe I’ll start something new.

Speaking of cats.

Big Grey Kitty

I never told you that we figured out where Big Grey Kitty is! Someone from the subdivision back of us came over a couple weeks ago looking for her neighbor’s dog. We hadn’t seen him, but I told her that if she came across a fat, grey cat with a bad eye and a flea allergy to please let us know. She knew exactly where that cat was – Big Grey Kitty shows up on her porch for supper every night. I sent Big Grey Kitty’s Other Mother home with flea stuff. Big Grey Kitty is due for shots this month so I’ve got to go over and see if we can round her up.

*Worming – think about a disposable straw in it’s paper wrapper. Now think about how the paper scrunches up into a wad as it slides down the straw. Like when you wrinkle straw straw paper on purpose if you were going to do that thing where you get the scrunched up paper wet and watch it expand into a wet wormy mess on the table? Here’s a helpful Youtube video if you have no idea what I’m talking about. That’s what many chenille yarns do when you knit with them: the fuzzy outside scrunches up as it slides down the ply in the center so you end up with a skinny bit where you’re working and a fat mess of fuzz at the other end of the yarn.