What's the collective term...?

At our house, I think it's called "an OBSESSION of cats."

Yes, I finished the Persian (and I never EVER want to do loop stitch again) and she (of COURSE, she's a she...) is in fine catty company here. 

 

We have "Fur Real Friends" (made in China battery-operated feline-eque monsters that meow and move like real cats.  Freaky.)

 Catty drawings EVERYWHERE - these ones copied from a "How to Draw Cat Doodles" book.  (And I'm sayin' nothin' more about that book title).

 Cats crafted from toilet rolls and paper towel tubes...

Every imaginable catty craft kit.... paper cats...

 Paper CLAY cats....

Big fluffy chenille pipe-cleaner cats...

The skinny-mini version, using (non-craft-kit) normal chenille pipe cleaners.  (These are the go-to gift of the moment.  Look sideways at the wee girl and she'll make you six of them.  They sometimes wear jewellery.)

 

Then there's the experimental cats... made out of uncoventional materials, like Fast2Fuse (no idea how she got her hands on this... I came home to find the finished cats).  These cats have collars... sometimes with diamantes (of the stick-on kind).

  I love the structural trussing on the inside.  Ingeniuous, non?

And it's got me thinking about the fine and fuzzy line that separates genius and madness..... I keep looking at this Persian cat, and then looking at the rest of the book of knitted cats - all different and all designed with such attention to detail of form and character.

How does one work these things out.... and WHY?

Can you spot the rows knitted by the wee girl?  On the first leg, she named me "purl girl", so I'd knit every second row (and do the increases and decreases).  By leg #3 she did one or two rows, and from there on, when she said, "Let's work on the Persian", it meant ME knitting and her talking incessantly and/or doing somersaults off the back of the couch.

And when she goes to bed.... I take photos of the real cat.

 This was taken when the man of the house fell asleep on the couch and the adoring cat fell asleep, cuddling his feet (...well if that ain't love, what is...?). 

So.... does "Obsession" fit the bill?

So, what ELSE did I do in Canberra..?

Lots of knitting and un-knitting* of this sock.
 

*Note to self: Do not knit fancy stitch patterns while watching Downton Abbey.

...And what of the two-at-a-time socks...?  Well, it just wasn't much fun.  I had to concentrate too hard and it took the joy out of meditative knitting.  I ditched one.

 On a lunch break from teaching, I discovered the hidden joys of A Stitch 'n Time  - the nearby yarn shop.  The display and merchandising in the shop isn't a patch on the lusciously inspirational Morris and Sons, but if you know what you're looking for, the yarns are divine and the prices are super-great.  I bought sock yarn in both wool and bamboo-nylon (it's LOVELY... and I'm thinking baby cardigans...) for about $18 a ball.  The beautiful green Italian cotton feels almost like bamboo - it's so soft and lustrous.

 

 And then the bloke (who came up to Canberra for the weekend with the wee girl) found this book in the Portrait Gallery bookshop.  He thought there could be no better fit for our cat-mad, knitting kid.

 They really are very cute...

And I had plans to work with the wee girl on something simple, like a kitten.  Of course, she set her heart on the Persian before I got  around to discussing the benefits of "baby steps" when one is first learning to knit.

 

But of course, she's a dreamer.  A Visionary.  She has plans of her own.....

Oh yes.... she has plans....

And so, the much-un-knitted sock remains much-unknitted, and the new yarn is still looking luscious  and lustrous in it's original wrapping.

And we've started knitting a Persian cat.

Box Instructions...

The wee girl told me her favourite thing at school yesterday was "box instructions". After a slightly confusing conversation, I worked out that she meant "box construction". For this particular kidlet, the subject really ought to be re-named "cardboard cat-making". We're being over-run by these cute little critters (...and we're expected to remember their names).

This one (I believe her name is Jasmine) came with her own carry-case and "medical bag" (a la Octonauts).
The scale just cracks me up (if you'll pardon the eggy pun).