Furballs' Once Upon a Nite collection

Furballs' Once Upon a Nite collection used the classic fir tree stitch pattern and its variations to draw up a snowing winter night using different types of crown

The first one is Once Upon a X'mas Nite for Furballs.  It is a top down hat using short row to shape the crown. The body is knitted in rounds and ended with a ribbed brim. It is totally seamless on both RS and WS.  Ideal as a chemo hat

The second one is Once Upon a Wintery Nite for Furballs.  It has changed to a bottom up constuction.  Started with knitting in rounds all the way up from ribbed brim to stitch pattern body and ended with a simple star crown

Third one is Once Upon an Icy Nite for Furballs.  It is again constructed from bottom up and knitted in rounds all the way up.  A minimal ribbed brim and started with the body in stitch pattern.  The use of tendril make it stand out from the collection.  The crown is a CDD four (4) section mitering to the center

The fourth one is Once Upon a Snowy Nite for Furballs.  It is back to basic in the stitch pattern design and make it unique using CDD 2 (two) section mitering and three (3) needle bind off to make the decorated seam on the RS of the crown.  Suitable as chemo hat

The last one is Once Upon a Windy Nite for Furballs 2.  It uses the basic stitch pattern and seamlessly continuing into the crown shaping.  The line of decrease merges with the stitch pattern.  

Hope you enjoy the variety we offer here.  Click here for more hat design patterns and here for more tree patterns

Top down short row hat in the round

Inpiration of this collection of hat comes from Furballs' Shorties and further expanded from the conecpt from the Holiday Egg collection I was designing at the time

At this time, we have Furballs' Apollo Hat, Furballs Pillar of the Pack and Once Upon a X'mas Nite for Furballs using this particular crown construction.  This unusal way of constructing the crown will have the column of  stitches straight up without converging to a point.  This affect the look of the pattern design that have it continues from body to crown

Furballs' Apollo Hat used simple stitch pattern to focus on the crown construction and to enjoy the knitting journey.  It is knitted in looser gauge from crown to brim to give it a mild flare out brim to block off the low sunset light in winter

Furballs' Pillar of the Pack is made with thicker rib and adding in lace to make the knitting more interesting.  The rib lace pattern make up a shape that look like the classical cornithian column (and yes I was watching too many archaeological documentary lol)

Once Upon a X'mas Nite for Furballs make use of basic fir tree stitch pattern and adding in picot stitch as snow effect for winter.  The crown is in stockinette stitch and make the crown more towards oval shape.  This make the fitting is slightly different.  Click here for more tree patterns and here for the Once Upon a Nite Collection

Furballs Strike by Luck 鴻運當頭 is the latest hat using top down short row in round crown construction to make the best use of hat fabric from top to bottom to have the k&p motif without the interruption of the increase line.  For more Chinese New Year stuff, please click here

Hope you will try out this unique type of crown construction.  This might just give you a surprise in fitting.  Click here to bring you to more of my knitting hat designs

MEOW MEOW until next time

Furballs and the twelve Holiday Trees

The Holiday Tree series is a collection of tree shaped dishcloth designed between 2019 and 2022

This three tiered fir tree shaped dishcloth is made from trunk up and made with the tier extension from the same row.  In this way, there will not be row staggering and stitch pattern starts right off from the first RS row.  When you get more into this, one will discover the importance of RS and WS of a cast on and that some cast ons' are more obvious then other.  It will give the knitters opportunity to experimenting on inventive way to do so beyond what is suggested in the pattern

It was first started with Holiday Tree in October.  Started in March 2019, it took three (3) months to get the first draft on needles.  The main focus was to feature a single stitch pattern in each tier.  Using broken rib for its vertical line , granite stitch for its horizontal line and diagonal stitches that is somewhere in between , the three (3) stitch patterns balance each other to form some interesting visual.  In this one, we put in a skinny star topper for decoration

 

The next creation is Holiday Tree in April.  This time we used a more delicate broken rib to make up the background fabric and main feature was the decorative surface crocheted ribbons.  Replacing surface crochet with chain stitch using yarn needle is possible.  A five (5) petal flower  topper  as final decoration

The third one in the series is Holiday Tree in July.   The tiers are now more interconnected with the stitch pattern pushing into the tier above.  It was a chance inspiration when I was commuting  spotting another passenger with a gift bag with a fir tree design.  Another five (5) petal flower topper is used in here

 

Remembrance Tree in November is the fourth one in 2019 / 2020.  This continued with interconnection between the tiers and the central part is left with a simple diamond shaped to allow adding in unique motif for personal remembrance.  A round wreath is used as a topper to go with the theme

 

Inspiration ran dry from then on and the tree theme was not picked up until 2021

 

Holiday Tree in February is the start of the creative juice.  Cables were highlighted running left and right to form diagonal lines, crossed in the center and making up the diamond in the top tier.  Bringing in the idea in 2019, a square wreath topper is used

 

Then came the Holiday Tree in March.  It was still under the influence from the 2019 creation.  The center hidden motif of a cat and a ring with pearls topper brought the design together

 

Holiday Tree in January reflects the season weather using a white / blue  self stripe yarn and added in a blue hexagon icicle topper to reinforce the coolness of the month

 

Moving backwards in time, there came Holiday Tree in December.  This is a total inspiration from Christmas tree for cats and so only the top tier has fir branches and the rest is bare branches.  A ribbon bow topper brings in the festivity of the month

 

Next one is Holiday Tree in May.  It is the time of spring with people start moving and building new homes.  So in this design, bird houses are the theme of the design.  The use of the whole three tiers as a canvas is now fully established.  A heart shaped topper is just the right touch

 

With the start of summer with heat and sun, the theme of  cool sea and the open sky is in Holiday Tree in June.  Sea Waves in the bottom tier, flying birds in the middle tier and open sky in the top tier.  The white cloud topper is just the right one on top of this tree

Nearly running out of idea for the trees, and finally drawn into the season of the month again, we have the Holiday Tree in September.  Leaves start to fall and change colour in the tree.  Acorn is used as the topper as we are competing with the busy squirrels to get ready for the coming winter.  Click here for more leaf pattern

The final tree of the year, Holiday Tree in August gets the inspiration of being the month of Cat.  Yes, I agree the design here is in another dimension, but who says changes are bad ?!  Cats, as ruler of the universe, are featured centrally here.  Two cats on the bottom tier and C.A.T written out.  In no uncertainty that Furballs are the superstar in here.  Adding a golden crown topper is not too much either lol  Click here for more cat pattern

 

Besides being usable dishcloths, I had tester suggesting to make a hanging garland / banner as decoration.  Totally workable with some light starching of the trees to make them maintaining their flatness when hanging down

I thoroughly enjoy designing the trees and toppers, and hope you like them too.  If still need more trees, click here to bring you to all my knitting tree creation

 

MEOW MEOW for now