Cat Bait

I had only five yards of Chunky Mochi to work with, so I decided to keep it simple with this cat teaser. I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn to knit it as written, so I marked off three yards, knit the body until I reached the marker, and then started the tail and knit to the end of the ball.

 The care instructions on my sample card said this was machine washable yarn, but it really looked like it wanted to felt, so I decided to try it (my cats are efficient destroyers of knitted toys). I used a bowl of hot water with dishsoap and a bowl of ice water, alternating between them while rubbing the fabric with textured dish gloves. My fish felted nicely in about ten minutes.

Before felting I wove some nylon crochet thread into the body of the fish.  I found excellent instructions for a "Non-Slip Mono Knot" at Animated Knots by Grog™, which I used to make a fixed loop at the end of the thread so we can attach the fish to a pole toy that we already own.