High Level CopyFurball

Think I am knocking out two patterns from one though I am not saving any creative juice nor time to write up the pattern.

High Level CopyFurball is conceived as a dishcloth pattern to highlight (guess in a very strict term, copy and reuse) the chaotic woven fabric stitch which I fall in love with.  I like the look it builds up and it retain the feel of tradition woven fabric stitch.

It will be too boring to just have the stitch pattern repeated so many times to make a square dishcloth.  I wanted more excitement and gave it a new look comparing to where it morphed from (More Heart from Furballs).  So I tried to pair it up with another stitch pattern and it was not that easy.  The woven fabric stitch has the characteristic of shrinking at all direction so when merging with another pattern, special care is needed to retain a straight edge up and down.  I finally took the easy way out and decided on linen stitch.  And with linen stitch, I just could not but knitted it in at least two colours.  It is a match in heaven. 

The free and disorganized chaotic woven fabric stitch contrast well with the highly organized and delicate linen stitch.  The best part is that they are both in the category of woven fabric stitch, so maintaining the tension and stitch number across the row to knit into a square / rectangle piece is a breeze.

If you like the fabric feel of the linen stitch, but are tired of knitting the linen stitch every time, and want some variation, High Level CopyFurball is for you.

The pattern is now available in my Ravelry store.

Happy knitting

Love is in the Air

Maybe it is springtime, my furballs (although they are both fixed) would love to send out more love to people around them.

More Hearts from Furballs is a continuation from another dishcloth, From Furballs with Heart.  The latter I have not published yet.  I do not know why but do not think it is good time for it.

There is a long story in the creation of More Hearts from Furballs.  Starting with some negative energy from the virtual digital world, I tried to prove that creation / design is not about copying old stitch pattern and giving it a different colour work.  There is no added value in those patterns whether they are free or paid, and if they are paid patterns, (sigh).

After doing a little research, I found the woven fabric stitch.  I think the characteristic is that there will be yarn in front of the slip stitch in the stitch pattern and thus creating a woven pattern.  The stitch also makes a very nice feel in the hand.  I then proceeded into some causal and random knitting of the stitch to try out some strange combination and eventually settled with the woven fabric stitch in More Hearts from Furballs.  I was totally captured by the texture this stitch created visually and that it retained the classic woven fabric feel.  I named the stitch Chaotic woven fabric stitch because I can not yet find a visual or pattern match to mine.  It might be known as something different to you.

The next step was to pair it up with other stitches to create an interesting surface and this proved slightly more challenging.  After several trial, eventually came up with a nice heart edge to finish the cloth. I also added in colours to make the cloth visually more interesting.  The piece could be knitted in one (1), two (2) or three (3) colours.  The pattern is basically written for three (3) colours with six (6) yarn tails to weave in.

Half of the dishcloth is in the Chaotic woven fabric stitch giving a very interesting look, the other half is mainly the interaction between stockinette and reverse stockinette stitches.  I also put in picot stitch to highlight the hearts motifs and stop the stockinette rolling with some beautiful hatch stitches. To top it up, the two half pieces and the edge is knitted in different direction, so the Chaotic woven fabric stitch look even more intrigue.

This dishcloth knit pattern is now available in my Ravelry store.

Hope you enjoy this new pattern and happy knitting :D

My Sprouting Catnips

Spring time should be here any minute and My Sprouting Catnips is a way to celebrate the warmer weather to come.

I love the curves in the pattern that is framed by a garter stitch edge square.  I love the curves so much I decided to squeeze in three stalks - one full and two partial, instead of two full stalks.  The reverse stockinette leaves wonderfully stand out from the background and fit well with the slip stitch cable stalk.

When I was designing it, I had a confidence problem knitting the wrong side rows.  This pattern is very compact and busy, so it does not have any rest row and each row, be it the right side or wrong side, has a change in stitch pattern.  It is not that difficult when knitting the right side as I can see the change, but the wrong side, oh well, it is like turning the piece every few stitches to make sure all the knits and purls fall in the right place.

This pattern is now available in my Ravelry store.

Happy knitting :)

Diagonal Ruffle

Diagonal ruffle is my latest pattern release featuring an alternative way to pick up stitches along a knitted surface.  Usually, when picking stitch from a surface, there will be a noticeable purl bump at the base.  If using the same colour yarn as the surface, this will not matter much, but if using a different colour, the purl bumps (same colour as the surface) will show prominent as in colour change in garter stitch.

In this dishcloth pattern, the pick up stitches seem seamlessly coming out from the surface.  When finished, you will not find any visible purl bumps.

This beautify and  easy dishcloth pattern is available at my Ravelry store

How can you teach an old furball new trick ... like fishing lol

Ice Fishing is a dishcloth pattern inspired by the two furballs at home.  Everyone knows that cats like fish and with being winter in here now, the best recreational activity for the furballs will be ice fishing for them. And yes, you can give the cat a fish to feed him for a day or you can teach him to fish to feed himself the rest of his life ;), but having superior intelligent than us mere mortals, my furballs know better that they don't need to do anything to earn their living.

In this dishcloth, the twisted rope edge (bottom right) is a honest attempt to mimic the crochet version (top left).  Think I can do better but I love the final version none the least.

 The rope gives the 3D effect to a 2D dishcloth which is part of my present design concept.  The simple diamond pattern works well with the free twisted i-cord rope and I am sure the free dangling fish will be something the furballs like playing with too :)

The twisted rope edge might takes a bit of time to make, but it worth the time and effort. The whole project will take about 4 - 6 hours to complete. It is in both written instruction and knitting chart. Simple photo tutorial is also incorporated to assist in making the twisted rope edge.

It is now available in my Ravelry store

Furballs and Hearts :)

The two furball CEOs in the "office" is hurrying me to publish the latest heart pattern so that they will not need to model with the hearts anymore, and as I wrote this blog, one of them is sitting next to me pawing me for attention.  Sometimes, I wondered why my progress was that slow.

Eighth Heart in One String is my second last pattern in the Heart / One String series.  In this pattern I explored surface texture by incorporating a seed / moss stitch pattern.  I also experimented with a different set up in knitting in bias and it turned out nice.

It is not a pattern for colour work.  The purl stitch will make it impossible to have it both sided using two colours or more. Also with the pattern repeat, it became very difficult to find a repeated pattern to change the colour yarns.

This pattern is a quick knit as gift for holidays and special occasions.

The pattern is now available on my Ravelry store .

Happy Knitting!

Long Fish or is it Unagi?

One late night at home while I finished the sample for a new design, we held an adhoc conference and the furball CEOs insisted on naming the dishcloth in something they like ...... like catnip, mouse, fist, etc.  They said the special edge resembled a long fish, so we finally decided the name to be "Modern Unagi"

Modern Unagi is my latest dishcloth design with a special two colour "flat twisted" edge.  The main bodies is constructed with a sharp corner wave pattern that accentuatse the corners of the twisted edge.  Also since the wave pattern is made with knit and purl stitches (no slipped stitches like the herringbone), so the rectangular shape is maintained pretty well without blocking. 

The three sections of the dishcloth is held together seamlessly by intarsia.  Although there is a right side and wrong side to this dishcloth, the intarsia in the wrong side is well arranged and presentable (meaning there is no need to hide :p)

The pattern is now available in my Ravelry store.  It is in both written instruction and knitting chart. Mini photo tutorial is also included to help in explaining the intarsia technique.

Happy knitting!