Serenity Knits: 4 Weeks to Go

QUICK CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Are there any pets on your list?
This is my gang -

Misty

Bella

Sylph

For your cat, you may already have a gift ready to go. Do you faithfully knit your gauge swatch and sometimes not bother unravelling it? If you have some swatches hanging around, you can easily turn them into a catnip toy for your cat. There are lots of cute catnip mice in pet stores or patterns on line, but with the 6 cats I have owned, they all liked something flat they could smoosh into their face. One of our cats, Lucy, was an outdoor cat. We always kept a catnip plant in the garden for her. She would roll around on top of it or bury her face in it.
Waiting To Harvest Spring Cat Nip

The indoor cats all enjoyed little flat pillows stuffed with catnip. One Christmas I got behind and I tried stuffing those cheap little stretchy mitts you can buy at the dollar store. Last year I experimented again. I put some old swatches in a jar with some dried catnip and left them for a few days. After they had absorbed the aroma, pulled one out, threw it on the floor and the cats were on it in seconds. They loved it. Once it was all soggy and gooey, I retrieved it, gave it a quick wash, let it dry and threw it back in the jar for another day.

I buy my catnip at a local health food store, Nature's Emporium. It is less expensive than the stuff in most pet shops and seems to remain potent for a long time. I refresh my catnip toys once a year at Christmas when I make cat toys for friends and family.
The link below will take you to their website for directions. It is a huge fabulous health food store.The catnip is with the dried herbs in the far back left corner where you find all the supplements.
http://www.naturesemporium.ca/

If you have a little more time available, how about a cat bed. I am sorry to tease you with the cutest cat nest I have ever seen because we do not have a pattern for it - I promise, Gabriela & I plan to figure it out in the new year. We will let you know.

Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting has several cat beds and nests.

I love this crocheted cat nest from Ravelry - Free Pattern at the following link
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nest-4

Gabriela knit this felted cat bed - Very Cute. Free Pattern from Ravelry at the following link-
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chaton-minet-felted-cat-basket

We have sold literally dozens of copies of DRESS YOUR DOG. Several adorable sweaters for petite canines.

My favourite is the shrug!!!

Last Christmas Gabriel discovered the cutest little dog toy at Wallmart. It is Lambchops and she comes in 2 sizes, very small for little dogs and normal size here with Stitches. I was in Wallmart on Wellington in Aurora a couple of weeks ago and they still had some.

Just a warning; amaryllis is toxic to both dogs and cats. I know they are beautiful, but having lost a dear friend Flip who was accidentally poisoned by ingesting lily pollen, I don't think it is worth it.

The following link to American SPCA offers a thorough list of plants dangerous for your pets.

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/

Gifts for Knitters

We have 2 book series that are very popular. Every knitter is always looking for good patterns. The 60 Quick Knits series are a fabulous resource for the very popular Cascade yarns we carry.

60 Quick Knits features patterns for worsted weight yarn - Cascade 220

60 More Quick Knits focuses on Sport weight

60 Quick Baby Knits uses Cascade 220 Superwash, a DK

The 101 Series are a gold mine of patterns for knitters.

We have sold more of 101 Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders than any other book we have ever had in the store.

All these books are reasonably priced in the low $20's

Pre-Christmas Special

When you don't have a lot of time, chunky yarn to the rescue. Ravelry has several patterns suitable for just one skein of Rowan Colourscape. We also have a couple of Free Store patterns. To help get through that Christmas knitting list, we have Rowan Colourscapes on sale discounted 25%. We have pretty good stock in over a dozen colours.