Sixteen Kitties

The news is less than perfect, so I'm going to write about crocheting cats...sixteen cats to be particular. I love to make "picture" blankets...these are blankets that have a picture embedded in the design of the blanket. In crochet terms, this is called a "filet" pattern, but I call them picture blankets. (As an aside a lot of folks who crochet will not attempt filet patterns because they are exacting and require lots of counting and concentration to detail.) I find them interesting to make and I love looking at reactions when folks see the picture in the blanket. I made the first one 18 years ago, and since then, I've made well over 100 teddy bear blankets. The teddy bear blanket is my "go to blanket" pattern to make when I'm on shipboard, in the RV or at home. It's cute and there's always a baby who needs a cute little blanket. I always give them away

...then I learned how to embed a heart into a blanket. I even know how to crochet a bunny (but I cannot find a picture of one)

...and now I have created a kitty. 

Unlike the teddy bear blanket where I had an actual pattern to follow, all I had with this blanket was a picture. I printed the picture normal size, then I changed the settings on the printer to increase the size of the picture

. Next step was counting off the stitches. From there, I crocheted a sample square of  one cat.. After several false starts, I figured out the pattern. The last step was to translate the sample into 16 continuous "samples" to make the complete blanket. I tore out nine different attempts at getting this blanket right. A simple kitty proved to be quite difficult...but, I got it right. Please take a look at my latest picture blanket, Sixteen Kitties

I gave the blanket to my niece and she loved it...and that's what it's all about.