How a Conference turned into a Cat Toy

Hello again!

I wanted to share my latest project.  It all started with a conference.

A few weeks ago, I had an idea to make a cat bed that looks like a cheeseburger. My cats love yarn and plastic, and of course, all cats love cheezburgers (at least, that's what the internet told me, so it must be true). I wasn't really sure how to start and I had other projects to work on at the time, so I didn't give it much serious thought. A week or so later, I was sent to a conference for the preschool where I teach. Usually the content is great and I love learning new things for the classroom, but this session in particular was irrelevant and worse, dry as dirt. They say necessity is the mother of invention but I believe boredom has more to do with jumpstarting the creative process. My e-reader was at home and my phone was dead. So I doodled.

This is the initial sketch and planning. Originally, I was going to make an entire bed, then decided I'd better start small. The square is because I had the mad notion to make the cheese square. I had plenty of stash yarn, so the project was on!

Well, after I finished Christmas presents and a commission for a coworker. Then there was the Steam sale...anyway.

Once I started, it worked up surprisingly quickly.  The only hangup I had was with the bottom (still not satisfied with it; it has this weird ridge where I joined it).

Of course, Mirri couldn't resist trying to sample it before it was done:

Finally, I finished it!  My first ever cat toy toy cheeseburger!

Except

My cats can't stand it, which is odd because they love the red beanbag I made. That one wasn't even made for them; they appropriated it one day from my finished items, which I now keep tightly locked up.

Ajani was interested for a little while, until he realized he can't eat it. This is him batting at it, confused about why this thing is in his bowl.

I think the cats feel insulted because it's not actually food. It looks like food, but it certainly doesn't smell like it. Maybe I should try to give it to them from the table. Or keep them from it.  *sigh* And people wonder why my husband and I don't have children yet.