Kitties in Wuv

New commission for a pair of star-crossed kitties. This is the kind of thing YOU could have made, if you drop me a line with an idea.

For this set I am going back to the same pattern I used for the Jumping Monkeys and the Mr. Skees Bears. The pattern is originally from Pica Pau, whom I follow on Facebook. I love her work and the simple style of everything she makes. The basic body shape of the Jaques the monkey pattern, bought back in November of 2011, is easily customizable. A lot of her other animals look similar and I am thinking about making my ACNL Mayor from this pattern... She has an Etsy shop but has nothing in it... I look forward to the day I can buy more patterns.

Anyway. We worked on the outfits, design and yarn color scheme of the pair together in my work shed. I had a lot of left over yarn skeins and this was a great left over project. I didn't have to purchase any new yarn!

Plans

I made the Girl Kitty a little shorter in the legs and arms than boy kitty, so he would be a little taller. I used a light pink to embroider the mouth and nose on both, and a large set of (18mm) black safety eyes.

Faces. Boy smile is a bit smaller.

For the girl, her skirt was attached at the color change between dress top and her bloomers. The skirt is sc in a gradual increase from the waist, to make the lace edges I did a sc, skipped a sc, chained 2, and sc in next stitch, around to make loops, next row is 5 double crochet in the chain space, chain 1, 1dc in next chain space, chain 1, 5 double crochet in next, repeating around. It made a kind of open-work lace to help show the cute bloomers underneath.

Left is body with color change for bloomers, Right has skirt attached.

For the ears, I made two small triangles, one in the pink for the inside of the ear, one gray/white and used a sc around the edges to join them together. When I sewed them on, I turned them so that the tip (row 6) of both ears faced the center of the head which made them look a bit taller.

Ear: (make 4, two in inside ear color, 2 in outside ear color)
1. chain 10, sc in 2nd from hook and across (9)
2. decrease, sc 5, decrease (7)
3. decrease, sc 3, decrease (5)
4. decrease, sc, decrease (3)
5. decrease, sc (2)
6. decrease 2 and leave tail to sc to other ear piece.

Ears from side and front.

The girls arms we wanted to have a cap sleeve with a little ruffle. The arm ruffles were made by doing a back loop only color change between the purple and the gray, to leave the front loops open to add the lace scallops on at the edge when done.

Short-Arm Short-Sleeve pattern:
1. in clothes color, chain 5 and slip stitch to first to form a loop
2. 2 sc in each stitch (10)
3-5. sc around (10)
6. switch to skin color, sc 10 around in back loops only.
7-12. sc around (do an additional 4 rounds here if making normal length arms and legs)
13. *sc in one, 2 sc in next*, * repeat around (15)
14. sc in each (15)
15. sc, popcorn stitch^, 13 sc
16. sc in each (15)
17. *sc in one, decrease*, *repeat (10)
18. decrease around (5), bind off
^ popcorn stitch: 4 double crochet in the same stitch, remove hook, insert into top of first dc, pick up dropped loop and pull through, extra chain to secure and for next rows sc)
Note: Stuffing the arm through the 5 chain opening is hard, when I did this again for the boy I just chained 10 and started there.

Finished arm for girl.

She also asked for a pansy flower like from Animal Crossing... I didn't have a pattern so I made one up, which came out really well. In the center light purple I did MC6 sc. Then switched to the dark purple for the inside petals, each petal made across 2 of the 6 stitches. One petal is made by chain 2, 2dc in first stitch, 2dc in second stitch, chain 2 and slip stitch to base. Repeat around 3 times for 3 petals. At the end of that row I switched to white, I chained 2 and did a sc in the top of each dc, and then did another chain 2 down the other side and secured it with a slip stitch in the same place as the purple. Did that for all the petals and left a few long tails to sew it in place.

Pansy flower.

The boy kitty had a lot less little details. Shirt and pants. Vest. At some point we will find a way to add some glasses, but for now they were left off. He was made full size to the pattern where as on the girl I left off about 4 rows on each part.

Boy Kitty.

For the boy's arms I did 16 rows of 10sc around, and then back looped and color changed into the hand shape. I also re-worked the vest pattern from the Skees-bears for boy kitty. Last time the back didn't fit quite right and bulged out the in the back center, hence skipping one stitch in the middle of the row of treble crochet. Still was a little large at the shoulders, since he doesn't have any, but fit better. Last time the button functioned since it was small but this time it was too large. So here it is decoration and on the back side there is a clear snap to keep the vest closed.

Vest:
Row 1. Chain 36, turn and sc in second chain from hook and back across 35 sc
2-4. Chain 1 for turning, sc 35 across
5. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 27, dec, dec
6. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 23, dec, dec
7. Chain 1, dec, dec, sc 1, chain 4, skip two stitches, treble crochet next 6, skip one sc, treble crochet next 6, chain 4, skip two stitches, sc, dec, dec
8. Chain 1, slip stitch in top of two decreases and up the chain space, sc across the top of the 12 treble crochet, slip stitch down the other chain space and across two decreases.
Bind off, Hide ends.
Sew button to one side.

Herb & Petunia. 

Both kitties took about 30 hours total. It goes by fast with a simple pattern and color changes. I had a really good time making these and once again can't stop smiling at the result.
Just FYI, Herb is 15 inches tall from his feet to ears, Petunia is 13 inches.

PS... perhaps their owners will rename them, but I had to call them something...