Cats on a Hat or a Hat in a Cat

This was a gift project, knitted in 10 ply cotton for someone with a black cat and a wool allergy. I'd been thinking about it for a while and checking out patterns. I purchased one that had three dimensional tails looping over the band, but decided it was unnecessarily complicated. 

I ended up using Meowf Hat which proved to be a joy to knit.

I resisted the urge to use up the 4ply cotton in my stash. The pattern called for 10ply, so I invested in three balls of Fiddlesticks Finch Cotton from The Yarn Trader. I went for Black, Cornflower and Sea Foam. Cornflower is more Midnight Blue, and Sea Foam is Khaki in my book. The latter does not show up true in the photos.

It was a pleasurable knit, taking a bit of concentration but easy to check and stay on track. I do like those little cats!

I used some 4ply cotton for the stars (or lights - or whatever it is the cats are gazing at). Amongst the decreases, they didn't work out evenly - but I figure that's as it should be.

The cotton has a lovely soft feel.

I managed to finish it off without either a protrusion, like an elf, or a hole. I took advice from my granddaughters about a pompom, and left it without. The offer is there if the recipient wants one. We discussed the options - black, blue, a mixture of all the hat colours and a mixture without white. Consensus favoured either black or blue if one was requested.

It folds up neatly, which gave me the idea of knitting a bag to keep it in, especially since it was to be posted. 

It didn't take long. I stuck to the khaki colour and worked a cat on either side. It fitted compactly.

I'm pretty happy with this one - and no pompom required!