Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 16:55:38 -0500
From: Nancy E. Dodge <grdane@aosi.com>
To: Knit@bolis.com
Subject: KNIT: Re: Knit V97 #1990

ICOSH:  My Holiday Gift to the List, Better Late than Never!

I made this little cutie on Christmas Eve, after my ten year old hung a
stocking for her kitten, Mr. Tabitha:

Mr. Tabitha's Furrbee Mouse:

Grab a handful of dpn's and pick four that are around size 3 -- they don't
have to match necessarily.  Find some 'natural' wool -- brown, grey, white,
and cast on about 20 stitches, join, and begin knitting in the round.  You
should have a tube that is about an inch and a half across, give or take. 
Every few rows, decrease a couple of stitches.  I can't be more specific,
because it's a matter of 'eyeballing it' to get a proper mouse shape, from
the base of his fat rear end to his little pointy nose.

You should wind up with a mouse that is around 2" long that comes to a
point in the front.  Cut yarn, and stitch a few times to secure.  Make
French Knot eyeballs on either side of his head with contrasting color --
black is nice, although pink on a WHITE mouse is rather splendid too.

Front being done, go to the back -- and stuff the body of the mouse (from
the rear) with stuffing of some kind.  I use wool scraps, since i don't
believe in catnip.  Stitch up back end of mouse, making sure that the
original tail of yarn is in the MIDDLE, so that it resembles a tail! Better
yet, add two more strands and braid a nice tail.  

You can crochet a long chain and attach it to the tail -- I made one of
these mice for my father-in-law, so he can go fishing for cats from his
chair in the living room.  

Mr. Tabitha loves his mouse, and I hope your cat will too!

Nancy in Dreary New Jersey
---
This pattern downloaded from Wool Works: the online knitting compendium
http://www.woolworks.org/