LaPorte Co. Small Animal Shelter Cat Beds

My local animal shelter requested cat beds as a charity knitting project I could do for them. Here is the pattern I created to make the beds.

Update: See the kitties sleeping on their new beds!

Materials
2 skeins Red Heart Super Saver yarn. I recommend Red Heart for its bulletproof quality. The beds will be washed in hot water and tumbled dry every day, not to mention what the cats will do to them.
size 13 needles
yarn needle for weaving in ends

Gauge is not real important here. Basically, these are 10 in x 18 in double thick blankets for the kitties.

NOTE: bed is made while holding 2 strands of yarn at the same time.
NOTE: this is bias knitting, which means that you are creating the fabric on a diagonal. There will be a long side and a short side. All decreases (k2tog) are worked on the SHORT side, and the increases (YO) are worked on the LONG side.

CO 3

Increase rows:
Row 1 k1, yo k to end
repeat row 1 until there are 40 stitches on needle. This will look like a half a square at this point.

Bias Rows:
Row 1 k1, k2tog, knit to end of row
Row 2, k1, YO, knit to end of row
Repeat these two rows until the long side is 18 inches.

Decrease Rows
Row 1 k1, k2tog, k to end of row.
repeat this row until there are 3 stitches left on needle, BO
Weave in the ends.