Furballs do not like BBQ ribs lol

Furballs are known to be picky eaters.  Moo moo and Tabby both had different taste buds.  Moo moo loved everything with diary product and baking good.  Tabby was more of international fusion and loved curry and chilli.  So both were not interested in BBQ ribs.

In the knitting world, ribs should be one of most knitted stitch pattern besides knit all in row (garter) and knit all in round (stockinette).  It starts as the most basic (k1, p1) and goes from there.  In this rib stitch collection, I used the rib stitch, rib lace and more, to knit up hats and fingerless gloves.  These rib lace patterns have the best of both world when knitting in one colour: great negative ease to hug the head for good fitting and lacy contruction gives the fabric a designer look

I started with Furballs' Apollo Beanie.  Naming is inspired by the helmet wear by Apollo, the sun god in Greek and Roman mythology.  This hat is constructed with three (3) stitch patterns. It is a top down hat with the simple ribs running from crown to body.  The ribs turn into travelling cables to make a visual band that change into broken ribs to form a short expanding brim to give some light blocking effect in winter when the sun is at a lower position in the sky

Besides the stitch patterns, the crown construction is also one of its stand out features.  Using short rows to shape the crown in two repeat sections making the construction pretty unorthodox.  

The second hat is Furballs' Pillar of the Pack.  When I was knitting up the swatch, it looked like Greek Cornithian column and there came my idea in its name.  It is a top down hat and the rib lace pattern runs from crown to brim. The lace rib pattern is a re-discovered pattern that I did a long scarf with long time ago.  I matched this lace rib pattern with a leave edge then, and this time with the hat, I just let the lace rib to shine on its own.  Fast knitting and a very forgiving fit

It has inherited the same concept in crown construction from Furballs' Apollo Hat and totally highlighted by the rib lace pattern on the side where the two repeat sections meet

Furballs' Ticky Tabby Hat  蜱斑大花貓帽 is the third hat.  This is also one of the hat in the Tabby Hat collection.  This hat is again a top down hat (getting boring now?) with the body using the rib with elongated relief stitch.  It is not lacy but rather more 3D with outstanding visual.  This stitch pattern, just like the rib lace pattern, has great negative ease and good fitting.  It is easy to fall in love with 3D relief stitch rib pattern

The crown here is a flat row bias square.  Another unorthodox construction

Furballs' Hole-ly Helmet  傻貓洞洞頭盔 is the fifth and latest design so far.  This is a bottom up hat (Finally!!) using the basic double lace rib and add in the unexpected cable stitch pattern to appeal to more knitters.  It is not a basic cable hat, but not far off.  It also comes with a pair of Furballs' Hole-ly Fingerless Gloves

All cable lines converge to the centre in crown like most typical bottom up hat and make up an interesting design on top view

Hope you enjoy this collection.  Meow meow for now :)

Furballs chewing on power cords

 

When brain is short circuited, thoughts and congnition are going down south.  Craziness is not far off. Tabby loved to chew on cords, and for some EPS reason, he would know to skip the high power one and focus on those small power cords like those that link with the speakers, etc.  Although he did not have a Afro fur cut afterward, I think it did do some demage to his brain and that was why he was a bit more escentric than his brother moo moo. 

This series started about two (2) years ago trying to make short row hat with decorative design making it an upgrade from the basic pattern.  I chose traveling cable as decorative design so as to hide the decrease / increase line in crown

Furballs' Complicated Short Circuit Hat is the first attempt.  It is a two end short row hat with the turning on both end portion of the row.  With this knid of turning, the hat is knitted from front to back (and yes you could say back to front too, it is all about prespective).  In order to make the fitting better and keep with the decorative traveling cable pattern, somehow with use a creative concept to reduce the excessive fabrics on both end of turn and floating short turn to maintain the stitch pattern.  It is definitely an "out of the box" design and creative use of existing knitting techniques, therefore it might be considered "crazy" idea, and there comes the inspiration of pattern name

Furballs' Omega Circuit Hat 循還不息 is not the next creation in the series but the second to publish.  It is a sideway short row hat that the short turns at one end only.  We keep similar traveling cable pattern to hightlight the different look when it is running sideway.  Also change of background stitch pattern is added to increase interest both in presentation and knitting.  The starting row will fmally meet the ending row and there comes Omega

Furballs' Circuit Rerun 傻貓電路重鋪 is the third in creation using the same traveling cable pattern.  This time it is a "standard" top down hat.  Cable lines radiating out from centre and expanding into traveling cable pattern and ended with designer rib.  All increase lines is well hiden in the cable lines

Furballs' Circuit Rerun Again 傻貓電路再次重鋪 is the fourth one using the reverse contruction to Furballs' Circuit Rerun.  Started from bottom up with designer rib, part of the k columns seamlessly float into the body as traveling cables.  Decreases are well hidden in cable lines and turn into simple decrease line for the last part of the crown.  These lines are all converging to the centre

Hope you enjoy this series as much as I did.  Happy knitting and meow meow until next time :)

LEMON furballs knitting LEMON hats lol

There is nothing look remotely lemony in the hats.  They are collected in Lemon Hat series is because the stitch patterns in the hats' body are from Lemon dishcloths series.  So why lemon?  It is all about the furballs.  I called them lemon furballs because they had bad habits and I sometimes threatened them with recycle and return policy from animals shelther where I adopted them lol  Yeah as if they cared.  They just gave me dirty look and moved on lol

There are at least four (4) in this series.  Three (3) made up, two (2) published and one (1) is waiting for the light bulb moment

Furballs' Lemon Twist Helmet is basically rib type of hat knitted from bottom up.  Faux and standard cables are incorporated in the knit columns of the rib.  Decreases are hidden in the cables and converge to centre using drawstring bind off.  Simple in construction with cables bringing in enough challenge to make the knitting interesting

There is also a matching cowl, Furballs' Lemon Twist Cowl.  It is a fold on itself double layer cowl making it good with breaking the wind and keep neck warm

Here is the inspirational dishcloth

Furballs' Lemon Tea Helmet 傻貓檸檬茶頭盔 is also a bottom up hat.  It starts with a designed rib pattern such that it flows seamlessly to form the lace / traveling cable to make up the leaf pattern.  The cable lines are converged to center and use drawstring bind off to close

Here is the inspirational dishcloth

Furballs' Lemon Balm Helmet 傻貓檸檬香蜂草頭盔 is the one on back burner.  It is knitted from bottom up and the pattern is a good different from the other two (2) with this pattern based more on horizontal wavy line.  Even decreases in crown and converging to center using drawstring bind off

Here is the inspiration dishcloth

Adding in another Lemon hat: Furballs' Lemon Bee Helmet 傻貓檸檬蜂頭盔.  It uses bee stitch in various combination to get the look.  Easy to knit and it has a thicker feel to the other single layer fabric.

I hope you like this series and hope to see you all soon.  MEOW MEOW for now

Furballs love to 逗利是

Chinese New Year is the most important time for Chinese around the world.  Here is a few of my works for the festivity

Furballs Strike by Luck 鴻運當頭 is the last creation in the collection but the first to publish because I can see that it will take some time [ average six (6) hours for a hat and two (2) hours for a dishcloth ] to make this hat.  This hat is made from top down and using short row in the round to shape the crown.  This leave half the hat from top to bottom as a creative panel with no decrease line interruption, totally made in heaven for this design.  For more of this kind of crown construction designs, please take a look here

Furballs are so Fortunate 福 is a design I had done years back and never really make it into a k&p pattern.  I think now is the time.  It will look so lonely by itself, so there come the others to make it meaningful and complete

The second one is Billionaire Furballs 祿.  My first try was not good enough.  It was after the last two in this collection that I went back to redo it again.  It is in a more quick and loose style of calligraphy most notable the top quarter of the character.  It makes a good gift for graduation (as suggested by one of the knit testers) and promtion too

The third one is Long Live the Furballs 壽.  This one uses the simplified format of the character in order to fit into the size of the design.  It is good for occasion like birthday

Furballs have it ALL 全 rounds up the whole collection.  A simple character that embrace the completeness, totality and perfection

In 2024, year of the dragon, Furballs Land Safetly on all Fours 出入平安, is the main piece that came out of my "factory".  This is an aggressive piece with 4 characters in one k and p design.  Also ideal as house warming gift

Continue with more Chinese New Year design, here come Fuballs are so Fortunate 1 - 5 五福臨門. 

For more Chinese New Year designs, please visit Chinese Furballs in Ravelry

Fuballs and I wish you all a Happy Chinese Year :)  Meow Meow until next time

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

 

 

Furballs' Little Corner: Furballs' Little Diamond Handkerchief

I am starting out a series of blogs dedicated to simple knitting by introducing some common / well known stitch patterns.  They might be simple but totally beautiful.  Furballs and I will published those patterns, with minor add-on(s), as charity patterns. 

Furballs' Little Diamond Handkerchief is the second charity pattern this year (2019) and the fourth in the Furballs' Handkerchief Collection.  The piece is good as coaster, cosmetic scrubby or afghan block.

This time, we are going to feature seed diamond brocade pattern in Furballs' Little Diamond Handkerchief.  On a piece of stockinette fabric, purl stitches are added along each row to make up the visible diamond shape.  The purl stitches also break down the pull of the stockinette stitches, and therefore you will not see the common side edge curling in stockinette fabric.  The more purl stitches (as in Furballs' Cubic Zirconia) or other type of stitch patterns (as in Furballs' Zircon), you incorporated in the rows, the less edge curling you will encounter (obviously there is a limitation to that without obscuring the "diamonds" :p)



Furballs' Cubic zirconia

 

You will find that the seed diamond brocade pattern is usually a 8n + 1 repeat (where n could be even or odd whole number), but it could be (even whole number) x n + 1 repeat with the even number starting at 4. This pattern is suitable for intermediate beginners and up practicing on knit and purl stitches.  Also this small piece will give the opportunity to try out long tail cast on and slip stitch selvedge. 

Furballs' Zircon

Long tail cast on is a very versatile cast on.  It forms a strong and sturdy base stitches for the rest of the fabric to build on.  And why it is strong and sturdy comparing to other cast ons'?  It is because this cast on has an inherited purl row when you working on the cast on, such that in the old time, it was regarded as the first row.  So in some vintage patterns, after long tail cast on, it will jump directly to Row 2.  This cast on will take some time to perfect it, but it is all about muscle memory, the more you use it, the easier it will be.  Also this will form the bases to start out learning the German twisted cast on.  Long tail cast on always has its cast on tail on the right end for Row 1 in modern pattern, so one can use the tail to tell between the odd and even number rows.  Although I do not have any how-to written instruction on long tail cast on, you will find plenty of videos on YouTube teaching this technique

Selvedge is a way to keep the side edge neat and tidy.  There are many ways to do it, and one of the most common selvedge is slip stitch selvedge (you can also check out Remembrance Day 2018 charity pattern for another example of selvedge).  The slipped stitch will tighten up the edge (comparing you will either knit or purl to go up one row using more yarn).  It provides the loops / stitches to for easy sewing since the slipped stitch along the edge will be easy identified.  Also it will make it easy to do pick up and knit (as in modular knitting, entrelac, etc.)

Have fun knitting this little coaster.  With this winter getting wet and cold in the northern hemisphere, please remember to give generously to your local cat / animal shelters (to keep the stray animals warm and out of the elements) when you use this pattern in whole or in part in your project. Furballs and I thanks you in advance :)

Happy Knitting :D

Charity Pattern 2019/2

Furballs' Little Diamond Handkerchief

Materials

Yarn, worsted weight, non mercerized 100% cotton (0.3 oz. / 9.9 g, 15.8 yd. / 14.5 m) OR acrylic (0.3 oz. / 8.8 g, 14.7 yd. / (13.4 m)

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

Scissors and yarn needle

Gauge (Pre block, stockinette stitch in situ)

4" x 4" / 10 cm x 10 cm          20 sts x 40 rows (cotton and acrylic)

Measurement (Pre block)

Length x Width          4" x  4" / 10 cm x 10 cm (cotton and acrylic)

Abbreviations

CO       Cast on

k          Knit

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

st(s)     Stitch(es)

WS      Wrong side

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 knit the next stitch,  bring the yarn to the back through the left side of the slipped stitch.  To purl the next stitch, leave the yarn in front
Continue to knit according to pattern
 

Using 3.50 mm knitting needle, CO 19 sts using long tail cast on

Follow the written knitting instruction below
Row 1 (RS)  sl1, (p1, k3) x 4, p1, k1
Row 2 (WS)  sl1, p1, (k1, p5, k1, p1) x 2, k1
Row 3  sl1, k2, (p1, k3) x 4
Row 4  sl1, p3, (k1, p1, k1), p5, (k1, p1, k1), p3, k1
Row 5  sl1, (p1, k3) x 4, p1, k1
Row 6  sl1, p3, (k1, p1, k1), p5, (k1, p1, k1), p3, k1
Row 7  sl1, k2, (p1, k3) x 4
Row 8  sl1, p1, k1, (p5, k1, p1, k1) x 2
Rows 9 - 32  Repeat Rows 1 - 8 three (3) more times
Row 33  Repeat Row 1
Row 34  sl1, p1, psso, (p1, ppso) to the last st, k1, ppso

Cut yarn leaving 6" / 15 cm tail
Pull yarn tail through the stitch to secure
Weave in all loose end(s)
Blocking optional