Hooters for Maggie

I have knit one lonely Christmas gift this year, and here it is.

Pattern: Owl Sweater. Now, I got my pattern from my local yarn store. It was free with the yarn purchase and when I asked who wrote it they said someone from the store transcribed it from a vintage pattern, whatever that means. You can buy an owl pattern by Penny Straker from the online store Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks (scroll down). From what I can tell by looking at the pattern picture of the Penny Straker design, it and my owl sweater are similarly constructed.
Yarn: Encore DK. Washable!
Knit for: Maggie. My pattern was only written for one size, and it has about a 24″ finished chest circumference.
Needles: US 3 for ribbing, US 4 for stockinette.

For such a little sweater, there was a lot to this project! It has aspects that I usually keep away from when I choose what I’m going to knit, the main thing is that it is knit in pieces and then sewn up. What a chore for someone who is so accustomed to knitting seamless sweaters! But I saw someone at my knitting group making this and I knew it was for Maggie.

So the sweater is knit in pieces. First you knit the fronts and back, then seam the shoulders, pick up stitches around the armhole and knit the sleeves flat to the cuff. That leaves the arms and body to be seamed. And then the buttons! Six for the band and 16 for the owl eyes!

I only made minor modifications. Instead of binding off the shoulder stitches, I kept them all live and joined the shoulders using a three-needle bind off when all the pieces were ready. I also kept the neck stitches for the collar live until I knit the neck band.

Aren’t the owls awesome? Hooters, if you will, and I think you might.

I sewed the owl’s eyes on with black thread as directed in the pattern. I used white thread for the rest of the buttons.

More Hooters on the back!

I’m so pleased with how this came together.  I was dying, DYING, to sew the owl eyes on the instant I finished those little cables.  But I told myself I wasn’t allowed to enjoy the eyes until the sweater was seamed.  I stuck to my self-imposed rule and it paid off because now I have a beautiful little sweater for my gal.  Modeled pictures after Christmas!!