Mice Fit for a Kitty

Once upon a time, in a month called July, I got a kitten who I call Toby. The night before I set off on my adventure to pick up the little guy, I knit him a toy mouse.
Anyway, my young kitten loved his mouse more than all of his other toys. He would play with the mouse throughout the night (sometimes it had to be taken away from him because he made too much noise while people -- i.e. me -- were trying to sleep), and he even would run and fetch the mouse whenever I threw it to him.
As you can see by the picture though, it became incredibly worn incredibly fast. The tail started to unravel a bit and the stitches didn't quite look as pronounced anymore. But the mouse still served it's purpose very well and Toby continued to love (or hate? He did do awfully mean things to it...) the little mouse -- the first toy that he ever received from me.

Then I moved back into my parent's house and Toby met his new arch nemesis/best friend Cacao. Cacao loved the mouse too. Maybe not quite as much as Toby, but still. Toby claimed the mouse as his own, growling and hissing whenever Cacao got too close. Eventually though, Toby relinquished his possessive grip over the toy mouse and he decided it was best to share. However, sharing came with some consequences for poor little mousey.
The tail began to unravel at an alarming rate until one day the kitties appeared with the mouse and lo and behold! There was no tail left to be seen! Nevertheless, the cats did not treat the mouse any differently and they continued to play with the mouse just as they always had.
Until...
The mouse was torn apart. Yarn everywhere! Quickly unraveling! NO! NOOO!!! It was at this point, I decided that I needed to make a new one. After all, it wasn't a hard mouse to make -- quite simple in fact. Turned out in under an hour.
The new mouse was given whiskers, a slightly fatter body and a smaller tail. When given a choice between the old, torn apart mouse and the new, prettier mouse -- with whiskers! The choice was clear. The new mouse won. I set both of the mice in front of Toby (of course, after I had taken pictures) and let him choose. Straightaway, he went for the new one.
Who would blame him? :)






And now that I've told you this story, I am certain that you all are just dying to hear how to make one of these adorable little critters for your own kitty cats! Well! I will tell you!

Supplies:
1 skein of KnitPicks Andean Treasure (Fog)
Set of US 3 DPNs
Cotton batting, wool roving, anything you want to stuff it with
Needle
Waste yarn for optional eyes and whiskers

Cast on 8 stitches and divide them onto 4 dpns. Knit 1 round. Increase 1 stitch on each needle next round. Repeat these two steps until there are 10 stitches on each dpn – 40 stitches total.
Knit in the round until the mouse is your desired length.
Decrease 1 stitch on each needle. Knit 1 round. Repeat these two steps until there are only 4 stitches left. Place these 4 stitches on one needle and start knitting i-cord for the tail until the tail is the desired length.

After you’re done knitting, stuff it with whatever you’d like. My mouse is stuffed with some leftover scraps of yarn and bits and pieces of odd roving. Sew the cast-on end closed with a darning needle and some spare yarn. When you’re completely finished, you can embroider some eyes onto the mouse or leave it as is.

Really, you could make one of these with any waste yarn that you have. Toby tends to be a yarn snob and he goes absolutely crazy over any sort of yarn that is of a "high quality" (I can guarantee you, if it were made of acrylic, he wouldn't give it a second glance). That's why I stuffed it with scraps of wool roving/spinning scraps and it's made from baby alpaca. Yours can be out of anything you'd like. :)