The Baby Kitty Blanket

Josh, dressed as a kitty for Halloween. He’s showing me his tail with his right hand and you can see Baby in his left.

Some people are dog people, some are cat people.  I’m a cat person.  I’ve had a cat for most of my life so it wasn’t much of a surprise that my youngest son, Josh, loved kitties too.  When he was about three years old, my mother bought him a beanie type stuffed kitty.   The kitty was named “Baby” and Josh carried her around everywhere.  At night I had to wrap Baby in a blue cotton blanket.  She had to be wrapped really tight, rolled up in the middle with just her head popping out.   Baby went on many adventures and very quickly became one of many stuffed kitties that had to be in bed at night with Josh.  But Baby was always his favorite and always the one to be wrapped up extra special.   Like all sweet little boys, Josh has grown and is turning into an amazing young man (14 just last month!) and the kitties have been replaced with things like an iPad and XBox.

A few years ago I was working on a new method for a blanket design, Made with Love, Patchwork Heart Baby Blanket.   When I was drawing it out, Josh watched me.  After a few minutes he said I should make a kitty blanket.  He said I should make it like the heart blanket, but a kitty.  It took me a while but I did design that kitty blanket.  Josh helped me a lot.  He worked with me on the preliminary drawings.  He helped me pick the right colors for both the kitty, blacks and grays of course, just like Baby, and the background, blue of course! And he helped me arrange the squares to avoid the placement of identical colors next to each other.  The child is a puzzle whiz and his help was greatly appreciated!  The naming of the pattern was easy, Baby Kitty.

This blanket has so many memories stitched into it.  Not only the precious memories of Josh’s suggestion and help, but I made most of the squares while on a family road trip.  It was a wonderful family adventure of which the blanket serves as a souvenir.  This blanket will be treasured forever, as will Baby, with her matted fur and scratched up eyes.  She is a sweet reminder of the past and of the sweet little boy who loved her.

In celebration of National Crochet Month and Crochetville’s Blog Tour, I’m giving away 5 copies of this pattern.  Find out more on how you can win a digital copy on my Facebook Page.