Knitting Pattern Cat Toys

Knitting cat toys can be fun and rewarding for everyone! After all, Kitty gets a new toy and you get something you don’t mind looking at lying around on the floor, instead of a garish store-bought toy. While the cost of materials may initially seem equal to the cost of manufactured cat toys, you’ll find that the more pattern toys you make, the more you end up saving. If you have enough spare time and a good local venue, you could even consider selling pattern cat toys at your monthly neighborhood craft fair. You might be surprised how happy people are to see them and, if our experience is any indication, you’ll get to meet some fun fellow cat enthusiasts while you’re at it. Knitting pattern cat toys can also be a wonderful way to introduce a new generation to the joys of knitting, or to get an already enthusiastic knitter more in touch with their feline loving side. In fact, knitting pattern cat toys has become so popular with hobbyists that several on-line forums dedicated to pattern sharing have sprung up, and these days it seems as if everyone has a favorite pattern! These forums are also a great venue for sharing pictures of Kitty at play, and for general cat-gabbing.

So how do you get started knitting pattern cat toys? Assuming you already have some basic knitting experience, you’ll need your needles (a set of US #5’s or #6’s seems to work well.) The great thing about cat toys is that they’re so small, they make a perfect excuse for using up any scraps of yarn or fabric you have lying around the house; don’t go out and buy extra yarn for cat toys unless you have something very particular in mind. However, you will want to pick up a healthy supply of catnip, since that is the recommended stuffing for any good cat toy.

So where do you find the patterns? You’d think someone would have put together a good knitting pattern cat toy archive, but we couldn’t find one. Here are links to a few of our favorites:

An adorable pattern for a whale toy

A pattern for a mouse— great directions but no picture

This is more of a craft site but it’s one of our favorites. It’s a collection of ridiculously cute Chinese food toys . Love the California roll.

On a similar theme, here’s a nice pair of patterns for dim sum toys . Who knew cats liked take-out?

Knit a cat for your cat to play with

Looking around on-line, you’ll probably be able to find even more. Or come up with a knitting pattern cat toy of your own and let us know! Also, obviously, let your imagination run wild with these patterns. We’ve found that additions like bells or feathers can make these toys even more appealing to Kitty.