My cat, Stripes, is kind of like a furry alarm clock that only goes off when you need to sleep.

Here she is, looking innocent of the crimes of which I accuse her:

Several months ago, in an effort to get more sleep for myself, I began work on a cat bed for Stripes. This past week, I came across the partially completed project while looking for something else and decided that if I am to get the beauty rest I need, this project needed to move higher up on my list of priorities.

To that end, yesterday I felted a test piece that was a trial run to determine how much shrinkage I could expect when felting Lamb’s Pride worsted weight wool crocheted in a half-double stitch with a 6.5 mm hook.

I learned that under those conditions, I could expect the piece to shrink to approximately 80% of the original size.

Armed with that knowledge and the 6.5 mm hook, I pulled out the cat-bed-to-be that I had been working on for my cat, Stripes, and got to within 1400 stitches of finishing with the crochet portion of this project.

This is how it currently looks:

Once I finish with the crochet, I will need to weave in the ends (two for each color change), soak the entire thing in vinegar (so the colors don’t run), ring it out and then allow it to soak in soapy water for about an hour before I begin felting it.

In my fantasy world, I get this done tomorrow. In real life, Saturday is probably a more reasonable goal.