The Cat, Smith, creeping onward

You may recall that when you last saw The Cat, Smith, he was more or less tail-less, a situation which accorded not at all with his dignity, and could not, he assured me, be permitted to continue for so much as a minute.

Alas for poor Smith, shortly after that there was an outbreak of chaos, and he had to sit there on his little stub of a tail for three whole weeks before I could put it right.

Still, here we are, at last, I’ve managed to get at least a first layer of stitching down all over Smith, including his tail.

As you can see here, I’m building up layers of stitches in single strands, trying to entangle the layers a bit, so that each layer modifies other layers, and I am beginning to try to separate out the front legs and hind paws.

The white of the cat’s bib reaches much further down than I had it originally, but of course, in the shadow it won’t be white. Finding the right shade to help with that is not entirely straightforward, it turns out.

At this point, though, I think he’s ready for me to start putting his dark markings on him. There will be some more of the various lighter browns to put in later, but I think I need to put the darks in to see whether I have got the rest of it right.

As always, now, I find that the way I work in stitch and the way I work in paint are beginning to blend together. In this case, the darks will help me find my anchors and mooring points across the design (yes, he’s small, but the smaller the design, the more important the waymarkers – trust me on this!) and that in turn will create a nice solidly, furry cat.