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Cats and Knitters

I am a self-professed knitting nerd.  I follow all kinds of knitting blogs, chat rooms, use Pinterest and StumbleUpon to find interesting projects, and talk to all kinds of knitters.  In thinking about all these different venues I've come to one conclusion:  We knitters generally have one thing in common, a love of cats.  I try not to be too obnoxious about it here, but Mike, my Tonkinese cat, is quite the buddy.  He's there to calm me when I've made some stupid knitting mistake, is more than willing to offer a helpful paw or two as I frog things, and remains attentive as I knit over his head while he sits on my lap.  (See the photo to the right.)  So yes, yes, yes, I am a cat person and have been for over 13 years.  Before Mike, I was a dog person for about 15 years when Kashina, a pure-bred golden retriever, was not only my buddy, but also a real friend to my sons.  She's long since gone to dog heaven, but she was quite the girl.  (So does that make me a bi-polar pet lover?)

My curiosity about cats and knitting piqued, I thought I'd try to figure out why so many knitters own cats.  I wanted real research not someone's opinion about the cats versus dogs debate or the quirkiness of knitters. I went into the search thinking, what researcher in his/her right mind would actually create such a study; aren't there bigger questions to answer?   It wasn't easy to find, but I did locate one such published paper.  Dr. Sam Gosling, with a Ph.D. in psychology (check out his homepage, not only is he young and good looking, he's already a professor) at the University of Texas, Austin did just such a serious study. Dr. Gosling and a colleague developed an online study asking over 4,500 people to self-proclaim their ownership of a pet or not. The group was then given a 44-item assessment that measured them on the so-called Big Five personality dimensions psychologists often use to study personalities. The Big Five includes agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness.

According to the findings:
  • Forty-six percent of respondents described themselves as dog people, while 12 percent said they were cat people. Almost 28 percent said they were both and 15 percent said they were neither. 
  • Dog people were generally about 15 percent more extroverted, 13 percent more agreeable and 11 percent more conscientious than cat people. 
  • Cat people were generally about 12 percent more neurotic and 11 percent more open than dog people. (emphasis added)
"This research suggests there are significant differences on major personality traits between dog people and cat people," Gosling says. "Given the tight psychological connections between people and their pets, it is likely that the differences between dogs and cats may be suited to different human personalities."

As someone wise once said to me, "Be careful what you ask, you may not like the answer."  And this proved to be one of those cases.  Being considered neurotic wasn't quite what I planned as I started this quest, so I looked up the Big 5 personality dimensions to figure out what it had to say about neuroticism. Apparently it means one tends to worry, or be anxious a lot and experiences more emotional instability than others. (OK that may well define much of the female gender.)  Openness points to imagination and a wide range of interests, something I'd refer to as creativity.

So in the end it appears knitters, those who are more often than not female, creative and emotional are the type of people most apt to own cats.  And according to this research are more likely to select cats as pets because of their own type of personality.  Case closed:  cats and knitters are meant for each other.  That would explain why so many blogs, chats and other knitting sites mention cats so much more often than dogs.

Bucky

Bucky in his ever resting position.  He sits on the mantel overlooking the family room.

But speaking of dogs, here's Bucky, the dachshund, with his name on a red collor.  If you missed the story or would like to revisit it for some reason, check out these posts:
http://flagelknittingfiles.blogspot.ca/2011/10/dachshund.html
http://flagelknittingfiles.blogspot.ca/2011/11/dachshund-part-deux.html
http://flagelknittingfiles.blogspot.ca/2011/11/dachshund-finale.html

Check -- another WIP complete.  Now back to the flower wall hanging.

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