Spenser

With three periods of hockey last night and a few minutes this morning I had time to complete a second Spenser Cat Mat sample. And I'm really happy with this one!

This little mat is a 12" x 12" square because that's the size requested by my local animal shelter for their cat cages and travel boxes. It's knit in two colours of smooth acrylic yarn for hygienic reasons - obviously in a shelter environment where sick and healthy animals live in close quarters, everything gets disinfected in hot water - and also because my cat made short work of the bouclé textured first sample. Also for hygienic reasons the stuffing is machine washable polyester. Working as double knitting allowed me to create a mat with pockets within the stripes for stuffing and an entirely reversible finished product. After slip stitching all the sides closed with a crochet hook using the long yarn tails of the lighter colour yarn, I embroidered a nose and a couple of eyes. And, before you ask, the nose is crooked on purpose, and the left eye is also smaller than the right on purpose. I thought it looked cuter and friendlier that way!