Sprinkler Furballs

Furballs' Little Handkerchief was inspired by my furball when he sneezed and spitted at my forearm while I was knitting up a coaster.  I looked at him with disguise but he did not seem to feel apologetic or anything. I know.  It was my fault in the first to have my arm right in front of his face *sigh*.

This is a charity pattern, and I hope to, at least, put out two before the end of 2018, to help with the cats and animals in shelters to have a good holiday season in December.  So if you are using this pattern, please donate generously to your local cat / animal shelter.

This little coaster came from me holding a KAL for a guest week in a dishcloth forum in Ravelry.  I chose a pillar / column stitch dishcloth pattern and find that it was, as expected, titled to one side when done.  Along the knitting, I also felt that there was a critical height whereby the tilting seemed to be more obvious, and for me, it is around 4 - 6".

Being a lazy person myself and always like to make something with blocking as a preference, I rethought the whole thing and came up with the following two solutions:
1. Either make peace with the pattern, knowing its limitation and find a project that does not require much height building.  Coaster quickly came to my mind and the following is the fruit of my attempt.  It works really well and I added in a little weird knitting technique to make it to perfection (at least to my eyes)
2. Or I could try to use the "law of physics" and balancing out the pull direction of the yarn.  That will be a dishcloth pattern I wrote up and put to test later.

Unfortunately, I do not know how to put in the photo tutorial (adding arrows etc. in the pic.  I can do it in word processing document though.  One day I will figure out, but for now, SORRY :( ), so the specialty stitch will come without the photo tutorial.

This pattern is also available as a paid download from Ravelry (knitting chart and photo tutorial included)
-----------------------------------------------------------

Furballs' Charity Pattern 01/2018

Furballs Little Handkerchief

Materials

Yarn, worsted weight, non mercerized 100% cotton  (0.3 oz / 9.9 g, 14.1 yd / 12.8 m) OR acrylic (0.3 oz / 7.7 g, 12.8 yd / 11.7 m)
 

Knitting needles, straight, circular or double point, size 3.50 mm  / US 4 , one (1) pair

Scissors and yarn needle

Gauge (Pre block, garter stitch in situ)

4" x 4" / 10 cm x 10 cm                     20 sts x 32 rows (for both cotton and acrylic)

Measurement (Pre block)

Length x Width           3.5" x 3.5" / 9 cm x 9 cm (for both cotton and acrylic)

Abbreviations

BO         Bind off (k1, ppso)

CO         Cast on

K2tog     Knit two (2) stitches together

k             Knit

myok      Make yarn over for the row below in knit

myop      Make yarn over for the row below in purl

p             Purl

ppso       Pass previous stitch over

psso        Pass slipped stitch over

RS          Right side

sl1          Slip one (1) stitch purlwise with yarn in front

sl1wyib  Slip one (1) stitch purlwise with yarn in back

st(s)        Stitch(es)

WS         Wrong side

yo           Yarn over
 

Specialty stitch: Slip one (1) stitch purlwise / part of selvedge (sl1)

Working on both RS or WS,

Step 1  With the first stitch on the left (holding) needle, use the right (working) needle and slip the stitch purlwise holding the yarn in front of the right needle

Step 2  To set up for the next  k stitch,  bring the yarn to the back and the left side of the slipped stitch.  To set up for next p stitch, leave the yarn in front

Continue to knit according to pattern

Specialty technique: Make yarn over for the row below in purl (myop)

Working on the WS and knit up to myop in the pattern,

Step 1  Identify the string of yarn that run between the stitch on right (working) and left (holding) needle

Step 2  Keep the working yarn in the front

Step 3  Bring the right (working) needle from back to front and right to left under the string of yarn

Step 4  Wrap working yarn around the right (working) needle as if to purl (over the needle from front to back, then bring the yarn under and to the front)

Step 5  Bring the right (working) needle together with the wrapped yarn to the back in reverse order

Continue to knit according to pattern

Specialty technique: Make yarn over for the row below in knit (myok)

Working on the WS and knit up to myok in the pattern,

Step 1  Identify the string of yarn that run between the stitch on right (working) and left (holding) needle

Step 2  Hold the working yarn in back

Step 3  Bring the right (working) needle from front to back and right to left under the string of yarn

Step 4  Wrap working yarn around the right (working) needle as if to knit (under the needle from back to front, then bring the yarn over and to the back)

Step 5  Bring the right (working) needle together with wrapped yarn to the front in reverse order

Continue to knit according to pattern

 

 

Using 3.50 mm knitting needle, cast on 21 sts using long tail cast on

Follow the written knitting instruction below
Row 1 (RS)     sl1, k to the end of row

Repeat Row 1 three (3) more times

Row 5 (RS)   sl1,k3, (yo, sl1wyib, k2, psso the previous k2) x 4, k2tog, k3 (20 sts)

Row 6 (WS)  sl1, k2, p1, myop, p to the last 3 sts, k3 (21 sts)

Repeat Rows 5 - 6 nine (9) more times (with Row 24 being the last row in the repeats)

Row 25 sl1,k3, (yo, sl1wyib, k2, psso the previous k2) x 3, k2tog, k3 (20 sts)

Row 26  sl1, k3, myok, k to the end of row (21 sts)

Repeat Row 1 three (3) times

Row 30  sl1, p1, psso, BO purlwise to the end of row (option: perform the last BO knitwise)

Cut yarn leaving a 6" / 15 cm tail

Pull tail through the stitch to secure

Weave in all loose end(s)

Blocking optional