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

Calico Furball

Calico Furball was written up in December 2017 and tested later but never got to the revision stage.  So finally, taking a break from knitting and creating, I took another look at the pattern with a fresh eye. I made some improvements with the goal to make it easier to follow and less guess work for inexperience knitters.  With that, I redid some of the photos to accompany the new instructions.

It uses modular knitting technique by adding one triangle after another to form the square.  To give this piece a modern look, I avoid using the traditional edge border to tame the curling edges but instead use "selvedging" in such a way that the curling is within control and forming a near to cliff like border (above).  It also added in stitch patterns for the triangle to make the piece looks more interesting, not just visually, but also for the knitting experience.  The patterns are specially chosen to match each other in stitch length and height so as to maintain a square appearance.  Each triangle is knitted a bit different and thus so many pages in the pattern.  The surface texture is very rich and the ridges make it a good a scrubbing type dishcloth.  It is also suitable to be used as hot pad  / coaster.
 

 

It is written for one colour only, but do not let it stop your creativity.  Adding colours is possible (above), and to me, the lazy way out is to use variegate (above) or striped yarns (below) :)
 

 

Calico Furball is now available in my Ravelry store.

Happy knitting