Spring is around the corner and some orphaned animals might need a new place to call home???

It took awhile- but, I'm finally finished with a small project.   I used some scrap/left over yarns and crocheted some little 'orphan baby animal' nests.  I'm going to mail them to a wildlife rescue group for them to use this spring when all the little orphan wild animals tend to be found.   I made 2 small sized about 4-5 inches across and one really big one for larger sized animals.   I just used 3 different yarns together to make the little bowl nests more sturdy.  IT also made them faster to make too.

I've known how to crochet since I was a child- but, I prefer to knit.  However, for this project 'crocheting' was a great choice.  

I decided to include these 'felted too small' slippers.   Maybe, they'll make a great temporary home for some baby animals?   To read the details about how on earth these items came to be read the story of fuzzy feet here.

When good knitting goes 'bad' by accident... HONEST!

I know a nice elderly lady in southern Oklahoma.   She retired from her job as librarian just as I moved overseas.   She has constantly written me 'real letters' for the past 23/24 years.   She has a nice little stay cat who adopted her a few years ago.  His name is:  Trouble  I have been knitting him a little cat toy for the past several years.   This year, I didn't have time due to moving into my house and being busy unpacking endless boxes to get ready for my guests that arrived the weekend before Christmas.  *I will return to this part of my story in a few minutes/sentences. I had another local friend who is 'cat-sitting' 2 cats for a friend who was going to be away for a few weeks.   The cats were still in the 'hiding' stage and I had asked my friend if the cat owner had left any cat toys with the cats.  The cat owner didn't.   So, I decided to try to find some 'yarn scraps' so I could knit some cute wool cat toys so that the 'cats' would think that my friend was OK in their minds and maybe come out from hiding? I went to the downstairs extra room where the yarn and various other craft items and endless boxes were stored.  I couldn't find any of my yarns that weren't designated for larger projects.  I kept digging around and I finally found a forgotten and abandoned knitting project. It was no longer stuffed pushed far down under left over yarns,  in shame, forgotten and hidden under a variety of yarn left-overs in the bottom of a basket... oh no... the movers had deposited this ONE LONE knitted item in this huge basket with the yarn skein still attached.  I had used left-over sock yarn from my very first pair of knitted socks.   *I do wonder what they thought it was????  No, I don't want to know what they thought it was... It was knitted to be a cat toy for TROUBLE.  I had knitted many items for him in the past.   A large variety of items such as his own cat, fish, dinosaur, birds, sushi, a doughnut, and some basic ordinary knitted mice.   These are almost always 'knitted free-form' and have always looked like what I imagined that they would be when I finished knitting them. It all started out innocently enough... I was trying to think of something 'different' that Trouble might like to play with.  I thought that something long enough so that he could hold it in his mouth and 'kick fight' it with his back feet might be a desired element? So, I started knitting with the double pointed needles... knitting and stuffing, stuffing and knitting.   I dug around in my 'craft supplies' and even found a lone hard plastic ball with a bell on the inside and I thought that would make the perfect touch...  all good ideas.   All innocent ideas. However, when I took it off the double pointed needles after knitting late into the evening... this is what emerged...  (some unraveling had already happened before I hid this 'long forgotten knitting project') At the point that I first found the 'cast aside' knitting project... at first I wondered what on earth this was... and then the memory came crashing back and I immediately remembered the reason that I hid this project from view... and totally forgot that I even had it) The hard plastic ball w/ the bell in it... is no longer attached at the base securely knitted closed...  That detail really made the image complete. Yes, dear readers... we are looking a knitted PENIS!!!   All I know is that I couldn't send this innocently and accidentally knitted penis to a nice elderly 80 year old lady's cat.   First of all, if she wasn't aware of what it looked like... surely SOMEONE else visiting her home would notice and wonder why her cat was playing and attacking a KNITTED PENIS?? AND, if she immediately knew what it looked like... would she wonder why I was sending her cat a knitted PENIS???  This was the only 'left-over yarn' that I could find... so, I grabbed it in my hand (trying to hide the shape as best as I could) and I walked upstairs... where I laid it down and started 'unraveling the yarn'... to knit it into a couple of knitted kitty toys. I didn't unravel fast enough.   My friends (non-knitters) came into the living room and saw the 'uh' knitted ITEM that I was unraveling... and started laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes.... I then had to tell them the 'story' of the knitted item's history. I used the lower 'pointy' part and knitted a sting ray cat toy and the other yarn that I unraveled turned into a ordinary knitted mouse. I also knitted 'Trouble' a new cat toy.  I knitted a purple octopus with lime green eyes.  I forgot to take a photo and it has already been mailed.