My goal in designing this pattern was to come up with a better catnip mouse: one that is quick and easy to knit up, and tantalizing to cats, but that won’t come apart, shed, or leak catnip all over the house.

My catnip mouse features a securely knitted-on tail, and is felted by hand or machine to keep its stuffing securely inside.

It’s a great little stashbuster -using about 2 yards of a feltable wool yarn with 2 yards of a novelty “fun fur” type yarn - and a great toy for your cat.

I’ve included suggestions for making different size mice, and modifying the pattern to make a Porcupine or Hedgehog instead of a Mouse.

Or, you can recycle your felting gauge swatches from other projects to produce instant catnip mice!

Update: New pattern PDF published April 2017, BetterCatnipMouse_v2.

No errata, just a general freshening up & reformatting of my original design published in 2008. In response to knitter comments, I’ve added a better explanation (I hope) of why your mouse might not turn out perfectly square, why that’s perfectly okay, and how to customize the size of your mouse.