owls

There can't be many knitters out there, at least those who frequent Ravelry, who haven't heard of Kate Davies' infamous owls jumper. There was even a bit of a furore recently when a certain department store appeared to have copied the design.
Several of my friends had already knitted the pattern, and last year I decided it was about time I had my own version.
I chose Jarol Sweet Briar Chunky, mainly because that is what my friend Rachel had used for hers, in a silver grey colour. The whole knit is more or less seamless, with the body knit in the round and the sleeve stitches picked up and also knit in the round.

The knit took hardly any time at all, but it was a bit of a learning curve for me as a fairly inexperienced knitter. The magic loop sleeves have a very tight column of stitches where I overcompensated at one of the ends by pulling the yarn too tightly. I messed up one section of the short row shaping, leaving a bit of a hole. The cast off neck edge is a little tight. And the less said about the underarm graft the better!

However, for all it's faults, I'm not displeased with how the jumper turned out in the end. It's a little bit tight on me, probably because I failed to check my tension adequately and I know I have a tendency to knit a little tightly, and also because I'm carrying about 10lbs more than I would like since having little J (as these photos testify!). But I love the shaping, and the owls, and the fact that its the first seamless knit I have ever completed!

I'm currently sewing in a vast amount if ends on J's little jacket, and then I just need to sew the arms to the body and it will be done. I'm a little concerned its not going to fit him though - its in the 6-12 month size and although J is not yet 8 months he has been in 9-12 month clothes since January. I might have to squeeze him into it for just a few wears...

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The Lopi-Along

One of the things I have been getting up to on maternity leave is a fair bit of knitting. With J in the house I don't have the room to get out my scrap supplies as often as I would like, but that hasn't stopped me from accumulating a fair bit of yarn which is mainly housed under the bed. So I really should be trying to put a dent in that pile. But instead, I caught sight of a knit along about to begin on Ravelry, using Lopi Icelandic yarn. And of course, I couldn't resist, duly buying the required amounts of yarn in ash and dark grey heather.

The pattern we were knitting was this short cardigan. Now this would prove a bit of a challenge to me because I have never knit fair isle, or attempted (gulp!) steeking. But in for a penny, in for a pound - I decided to try both techniques in the same garment.

The cardigan knit up really quickly (after the rather irritating moss stitch border) - the yarn is a little tough on the fingers but after a while you get accustomed to it. I had to go up a needle size to achieve the correct tension but this is standard for me, a tight knitter. I decided to add a few rounds to the length, I know it's meant to be a short cardigan but I didn't want it riding up under my armpits! However I pretty soon realised I would need more yarn, and true enough, knitting had to go on hold while I waited for another skein to arrive. Very irritating!

Once I got onto the fair isle section I realised quite how addictive this style of knitting is! Being in chunky yarn, the pattern built up quickly which was satisfying.

I used the excellent Cotton and Cloud video tutorials to teach myself the basics of two strand knitting, including the continental style knit stitch which I gained confidence in as I went.

Very soon, I had completed all the knitting on my cardigan - if I hadn't run out of yarn it would have taken less than a week, which is impressive for a full size garment.

So now I just have to cut the steek, but that's another story...

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