Smudge and a new technique

I spent a lot of the morning on the phone to various agencies about our elderly relatives in Sunderland. It was a great relief then to drive down to Crook to see my friend, Pauline, who is recovering well from a hip replacement. She is walking around the house, has been knitting like mad for the grandchildren and was about to start some dressmaking!

We had a knit and natter which was lovely. It's so good to have friends who you can talk to freely and know they will listen well and offer supportive advice.

This is Smudge, Pauline's cat. He is usually very friendly but today he was keen to sit near the cat flap so see if his girlfriend, Socks, was coming to call. I've tried a technique which mimics a sketch for this image. It involved some clever tricks I would never have thought up for myself and I think it will have more mileage with some refinement. Here is the link if you want to try it out.