Black Sheep (or is it CATS?) of the family

Everyone must have at least one in the family lol and if you are looking at sheep coasters, I am sorry to disappoint you. Although sheep are nice, CATS are nicer (I have the furball CEOs staring at me while writing this). I named them Black Sheep because they are constructed differently compared to the Rub My Tummy Please coaster, but they look nearly the same ... yes, if you look closer, you will see the difference.  It is not a bad thing though, we are all different after all, and Happy Mama likes her litter all the same.

This pattern took me about one week of experimentation. It is a bit of a challenge to handle the curly edge of a knitting a disc in stockinette stitch, but I think I made a good solution to the problem

This line of coaster is technically downgraded so more can enjoy knitting it. It is suitable for intermediate beginners which are now comfortable knitting in rows and ready to progress to knitting in rnd. No specialty cast on necessary, no make one increase stitches. There is a lot of pick up stitches practice but totally manageable.  And with that in mind, I only kept it at small coaster.  Don't expect me to pick up 104 sts soon after making Happy Mama :D

One important note to the technique of the coasters: for intarsia of Pink Lady Kitten, I recommend anchor every stitch to make the WS neat and tidy; otherwise, if using 2 or more floats, might need to sew on a piece of fabric, e.g. felt, to finish

I will bring it to test soon and hope it wont be a disappointment to my testers :D

Happy knitting!

How cool is your cat?!

Cool Cat is my latest knitted cat toys pattern inspired by the self entertainment writing between me and my friend, Cornwall. What could be cooler than my magical cat in the story, Oscar, laying on his back, putting on his sunglasses and sun tanning.

It is a seamless design with the tail sewn on. It is a good knitting work out for advance beginners to practice knitting in rounds (instead of the old boring scarf with 4 row pattern repeat :p) The cast on and bind off as well will be challenging but not to the point of mission impossible for advance beginner level; and since everything is in small scale, so it is much easier to handle compared to trying out in larger projects like hats or mittens.

This is my first pattern tested by volunteer testers :) and they were very helpful. Through the testing, I found that the most tricky and challenging part is the final bind off which involves transition from 3 needles bind off to Kitchener stitch. Most testers read the Round's instruction too fast and completed the work with 3 needles bind off from ear to ear. There is nothing wrong with it. I can see it is logical and easy to keep on doing the same bind off to the end, but the 3 needles bind off leaves a ridge / seam that could be improved by switching to Kitchener stitch. The transition from front to back will look totally seamless.

So I add a mini photo tutorial to assist the knitters to complete the bind off and learn a new trick :D All the resources on the other knitting techniques used in this pattern, they will be very easy to search on the internet.

As you are familiar with the pattern, you can use variegated yarns or intarsia to customize the look according to the intent recipient (above, right is my Moo Moo :D). I particularly enjoy posing the cat tail at the back as we all cat lovers know how expressive the cat tails are.

From the cat's prospective, Cool Cat has a big tummy to hold a lot of catnip for hours and hours of enjoyment.

The pattern is now available for sale at in my Ravelry store
Happy Knitting :)

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I like tummy rub :)

My 4th knitting pattern has come to a brick wall. I was trying to fix it with mini photo tutorials, and smoke came out from my ears. In order to preserve my sanity, I went off for a detour and looked for knitting ideas from the web.

And here I was, came across the crochet cat butt coasters. They are so cute and those talented crafters had made so many different variations, It nearly made me want to pick up my crochet hook. Looking deeper, I find that there weren't any knitting version available, either free or paid. I am sure there are at least two good reasons knitting version does not exist. Firstly, crochet is so much faster than knitting, so this little coaster that could be done in 20 minutes will take up to 1.5 hrs in knitting. I am sure crafters looking for this kind of pattern would like a speedy one. Secondly, crochet makes a thicker and sturdier fabric which is more suitable for coaster. Keeping that in mind, I challenged myself in drafting up a knitting version.

After a few trials, finally knitted one up and showed it to the broad of directors of my company ( that will be my two furball CEOs ). They gave me a dirty look. I knew they wanted more respect and butt exposure is not acceptable. So off I went back to the drawing broad and made a Disney version :D No butt nor nipples exposure lol

In this final pattern, Rub My Tummy Please, Happy Mama is teaching her two little sleepy kittens on Human Control 101 - how to make human rub my tummy :D Just roll over and start purring, human will be mesmerized and rub the cute little cat's tummy by reflex :D

Rub My Tummy Please composed of 2 coasters for human (for Mommy and her significant other) and 1 coaster for cat's water bowl. Well, and for those others humans that dare to enter the house, they will hold their own drinks lol

One advantage of this knitted coaster compared to the crochet one is the ridge around the outside. If the cup is of the right size, the ridge will cling onto the cup, so anywhere the cup goes, the coaster will be there to do its job :D So it wont be that difficult to make size to fit coaster for your cups in the cupboard by altering the needle or yarn size.

As for the technical part of the pattern, I have kept the complication to a minimum and advance beginners should have no problem following it. Please keep in mind that this is not a tutorial pattern, meaning all techniques will not be demonstrated in words. One needs the basic to proceed. For example, the special treatment of the working yarn in turning in German short rows will not be explained but simply stated as sl1k^ and sl1p^. In this digital world, it is easier to research on the net for videos for techniques. I do not put in link for those videos etc. because those videos are not my production and I can not guarantee they will not be taken down, and you somehow got a blank link.

The pattern will be tested soon and hope to publish in the near future. I am incline to make this a half charitable pattern to help out cat / animals shelter, but need to work out the logistics and final details.

Happy Knitting