I have had the pleasure of being chosen to pattern test these lovely patterns by Polaripop and I just love her NONOs characters so I was excited to be chosen. I am hoping to make all 6 in the deadline but we will see, and this of course is my first one.

Originally I was going to make the Parrot Character as I felt this yarn would be a great match but near the end I changed my mind for a very special reason. Throughout this project I have been kept company by my faithful crochet companion Angel, who is a very sweet female ragdoll cat. Sadly near the end she passed away as she was very ill and had been since January, so I knew I had to do this one in memory of her. It was my last ever crochet project I made with her by my side and it was hard finishing it off knowing she wasn’t here but I wanted to do it for her. It’s why I changed the character to a cat, in memory of her. I’ll never be able to look at this finished NONOs Character without thinking of my sweet Angel.

I made this cat character exactly to the pattern and made one additional feature, a cat tail. I felt it needed a tail to finish it off and that’s exactly what I did. I am really pleased with the outcome and I think the tail finishes off this creation perfectly. Below are notes on how I made the tail in case you want to make one too.

••• How I made the tail •••

1.Magic circle

1. 3 sc into magic circle.
2. 2 sc into each stitch. (6) 3-41. Sc into each stitch. (6) Cut Yarn, leave a tail to sew into place.

I sewed into place in row 6-7 approx from the crotch area (as in count from the crotch upwards).

••• A Few Tips •••

When making this pattern I did have a few problems when it came to matching the same size for the boots for the legs, and the same when it came to the arm tips. I would do as per the pattern so I’d make the boot and carry on up the leg and once finished do the same for the other side. When I did this I’d find my tension had obviously changed a little as my boot would be a different size and obviously you don’t want this. To avoid this I now make them at the same time so can make sure they match and then I proceed finishing of the first leg and then going onto the second, having the boot made already so all I need to do is the part in the main yarn. Same applies to the arms. I hope you find this too useful.

As with all my amigurumi I use tights/stockings when I stuff with fibre fill. I did the same with this creation too, the only difference was I didn’t do the legs like I would usually. I started with the body and did it in one piece, tieing the tights at the top of the head.

I had the pleasure of working with some lovely hand dyed yarn for this project and I have to say I loved every moment. I used a lovely quality Pima Cotton DK yarn which was beautifully dyed by Made By Penguins. It was perfect for this project and I really love the finished results. I am referring to the main yarn used for this project.

For the other yarn I used a favourite cotton yarn of mine from Three Bears Yarn, a newer range of theirs called Passion which is 100% cotton DK weight and the yarn is handspun in England, UK. The actual yarn is another quality Pima Cotton so it was a perfect match with the hand dyed yarn I was using, and luckily I had a small stash of the undyed yarn which was a perfect match for this project (the boots and arm tips). It was really lovely to work with and I’d definitely pair hand dyed pima cotton dk weight yarn with this yarn again if a pattern called for it as they pair well together. I also used the same yarn for the nose and whiskers, and that is from their dyed range. I would of used black from this range too but they don’t currently have this colour so I used a another DK cotton in black.

Note Regarding Yarn Amounts Used

The amounts logged in the information above are correct but I have also included below what I used without the tail in case this information is helpful.

Total yarn used before the tail 55g.

Please note the undyed yarn is logged at a bit more yarn than I used, as I had to frog a little of it so you will probably need a little less.