KNITWEEK2016 Pt 6: Owls by Kate Davies

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Hello again,

This is an epic post for me because I actually started this project in October 2014! It took me 2 years to finish it!

Some background: Owls is an insanely popular pattern on Ravelry by Kate Davies. It’s actually one of the first Ravelry downloads I bought because it uses a chunky yarn. I thought that it would be a quick knit <oh the irony>.

I wanted it in red, Hayfield Bonus Chunky shade 977 Signal Red to be exact. Since I was just beginning I bought a cheap acrylic yarn. To be honest at that time wool scared me.

I knit my arms too long and I had to unravel a half done yoke when a friend mentioned the irony of completing a make you know you are not going to wear because of a known error that can be easily fixed by ‘tinking‘ – I hate it when pals are right! After sulking for a few days, I came round and set my timer. Surprisingly it only took 30 mins to get back to error point. I used a Russian bind off on the neckline. The cable pattern was very easy to read.

The yarn is acrylic so its machine washable. I enjoyed knitting with it actually. The colour is a an amazing fire engine red that if I got lost, a rescue helicopter could easily see me. I love it! I messed up my underarm grafting again despite my best efforts. Its perfect on the 4 grafted stitches but the holes were much bigger than that – there are gaping holes that I tried to ‘sew up’ but to no avail. In the end my ‘Done is better than perfect‘ mantra kicked in.

I just washed and dried it instead of blocking since its acrylic. I learnt from my Antler experience that I dont need to fuss with acrylic yarns when it comes to blocking. Its warm and lovely to wear.

OWLS Sweater

Back View

‘Holes’ under my arms.

I love the yoke

The back view of yoke with neck shaping

Love the combo with my Birkin flares

OWLS Sweater

Looking at fit – It has a good fit overall but I may have messed the back shaping as that’s ended up lower than my waist. I think I just knit to my prefered length with little regard to what was going on in the back. When I make this again (and I will) I need to change where those darts go or possibly move them to the sides – I am not 100% behind them. Oh and there was no way I had the patience to find and sew approx 32 buttons.

Best feature of this for me – the owls yoke. I love how they wrap around my shoulders. I can see why this is a popular pattern. No if only it hadn’t taken me 2 years to finish it!

Its been a marathon week for me catching up with my knitting blogging but I have enjoyed it and thank you all so much for reading, liking and commenting. I will be back with one last post tomorrow but until then, Happy Knitting.