Thinking out of the honesty box

Last year I seemed to spend a lot of time on this blog apologising for not being terribly regular. There were a couple of reasons which I didn't fully go into, but which meant I wasn't feeling particularly joyous last year, one of which was my lovely cat Bluey being diagnosed with a serious illness around the middle of last year.

I didn't then, & don't now, plan to go into the details - he is, I am glad to say, still very much with us at the moment and getting all the love, care & spoiling we can give him.

(c) David Jollie

What did give me cause to be thankful, as unexpected vets' bills mounted for various diagnostic tests, was that we're at least lucky enough to be in a position where those were not a showstopping issue - we could be confident that we can make choices for him based on what's best for him, not what's cheapest. I thought about how horrible it must be if your beloved pet was ill and you simply couldn't afford to look after him. Even responsible pet owners can find themselves in that situation, through no fault of their own, and some of the people who most need their pet in their lives - elderly or vulnerable people - are most likely to find it difficult in these situations.

So, it made me realise how important the PDSA and similar charities around the world are - in providing vet care for pets of people in need, as well as affordable pet insurance and advice about pet health.

As part of my support, I did the thing I enjoyed best - designed a knitting pattern! Cat Walk Shawl features cat's paws pattering from centre to edge, cats eye lace and as near as I could get to little cat faces around the edging. It's worked in beautiful Artesano Alpaca Silk Lace, with yarn support generously provided by my friends at Artesano Yarns.

Rather than charge and have any donations go to the tax man, I'm using an "honesty box", and asking knitters who download the pattern to visit my Just Giving page and donate whatever amount they want to the PDSA. I'm also really happy for knitters who would prefer to donate to a similar local charity to do so - but let me know who via a comment on the pattern.

I did sort of manage to get the man himself to model the shawl - see above - but trust me, photographing cats and lace shawls together on windy day is not the easiest.

The donation page has been so successful that I have also set one up for an older charity pattern of mine - Bob's Beanie - which I made to support my friend Alex's fundraising for the British Heart Foundation in memory of her dad Bob. You can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/bobsbeanie

 



Alex is modelling the hat coincidentally sat on the same bench in my back garden as Bluey - she was a rather less mobile model!