I don’t know when I first saw the picture, or what I was looking for when I found it.
But what I found was a half-asleep, slightly crazy-eyed cat lying on a wall, against a glowing orange background. And I was hooked.
The image I initially found was AI generated – which is why I have no qualms about sharing it here without credit. Look:
You can tell it’s AI: the way the tail floats over the fabric; the straight vertical lines of stitches across the whole garment; the way those leg stitches look suspiciously like crochet if you zoom in a bit. And probably half a dozen other things that I haven’t even noticed. But I loved it! I thought I could make it real if I just put my mind to it.
So that’s what I decided to do, and I found the actual pattern for the cat – Black Cat Bag (Ravelry link) by Maryna Vershynina (designer’s site). Go and visit her website because she has tons of really cute patterns for crocheted bags and cushions. For example, this dinosaur is just calling out to be made.
I bought the pattern and intend to use it as a knitting chart. I just needed a basic sweater pattern that would have enough stitches to fit that chart into… But first I decided to choose my yarn (I really went down this rabbit hole backwards, didn’t I?).
I went looking for the right colour (at the right price) and landed on Drops Air in Electric Orange, Pearl Gray and Anthracite for the cat. So now I needed a pattern to suit that weight of yarn – and ended up on the Drops website, looking through the suggested patterns for Drops Air.
I’ve settled on Early Moorning Mist (Drops website) which does have an extra ‘o’ in the name, that’s not a typo. At least, not a typo on my part. It’s a free pattern for a top-down, loose fit raglan, made in the round. The cat will have less space around it than the AI image, but that’s acceptable.
I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about the colourwork yet – change from knitting in the round to knitting front and back separately? Do a kind of wrap and turn so I can knit back and forth in rows that are still joined up, like Obsidian? Carry the colours all the way round which, believe it or not, is how Embrace works?
It’s quite a long way off, yet. I’ll think about it as I knit.
I’ve added this post to the Unraveled Wednesday linkup, with thanks to Kat for hosting.
The Crafty Yarnster 