The general atmosphere around my house this week is...catty. The kitten (Mattie) is adjusting well, and our big red tabby Ben is even starting to play with her a little bit now that a week has gone by. Its amazing how many toys one tiny kitten can use!

This being the case, the urge to make cat toys hasn't let up. This week I bought those round cage-like plastic toys with a bell inside, and dug through my hand spun stash for colorful and feltable leftovers. Crochet seemed simplest for making fiber globes encasing plastic toys.




Here are four plastic toys enclosed in their crocheted jackets, ready for felting in the washer.

And here is Zoe, our standard poodle, demonstrating that even dogs like these toys a lot. Sadly, this is the only post-felting picture I could get due to how fast the toys were moving, and the unpredictable delay on the digital camera. Suffice it to say that this method yields an excellent cat (and maybe dog) toy.

I plan to soak them in strong catnip tea once I retrieve them from under the couch, behind the piano, in the closet, at the bottom of the basement stairs, bured in the sofa cushions...