Book Review: Victorian Housecats to Knit (OT)

Victorian Housecats to Knit, by Sara Elizabeth Kellner (Stackpole Books, 2024, 160 pp [HB], $29.95) Review by Skye Anderson. 

Oh, my! From the parlor cat to the porch cat to the window can to the library cat and the pottery shed cat and kittens to the fireplace cat,

Fireplace Cat

author and knitting designer Sara Elizabeth Kellner has done it all. And if you don't like cats, maybe you love knitting for someone who does like cats. Or maybe you just like to read about Victorian England.

Meet the Morgans (and their cats)

In the beginning is a two-page spread of the family tree of the Morgans* which makes sense as you read about the different cats and people in the different rooms - almost a historical story in itself (if you supply the plot).

The Morgans consist of cats, and twins, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Aunt Pru, the cook, . . . 

Each room in this Victorian house has its own type of cat with different color combinations and excellent unique photographs of cats in "their" rooms. For example, the porch cat is stretching out like in a dog yoga pose

Porch Cat Demonstrating the Downward Dog?

and the cook's cat is lapping up a saucer of milk. Three window cats are shown - one black, one orange and one gray - shown from both inside and outside the window.

There is a tortoiseshell, a tuxedo, a manx, a Persian and a ginger cat. I can't wait for the next book, hoping to see a Siamese cat and a calico cat! And each one has a story to go along with the knitting pattern and Victorian house room.

Author Sara Kellner recommends beginning knitters start with the window cat followed by the parlor cat (an orange one on the piano, a grey one on a coffee table and a black one next to a comfy chair) or Aunt Pru's Persian cat (three differently colored cats, each with a neck accoutrement like a bow 'necklace').

I can't wait for Sara's book of dogs to knit!

Tomorrow: Wild and Wooly Knitted Animals: A Naturalist's Notebook