Finished Owls Jumper

I finished my Owls jumper about a week ago and I’m pretty pleased with it.

It makes me happy to be finished because it’s a very warm jumper and the weather has been freezing lately. Even the rain freezes solid in Gordon. Ok, so it’s hail, but it makes me think that snow can’t be far away.

As well as being warm, Owls is also very cute. I’m surprised how many people have been unable to see little owls in the pattern – I thought they were very obvious. But I’m looking for owls when I see it, so I’m biased. I do get lots of positive comments about my jumper though, even from people who can’t see the owls until they are pointed out.

I decided to use shirt buttons in a closely matching colour for the “eyes”. They are a little bit darker than the yarn, but being polished plastic they catch the light and stand out rather than recede.

I sewed on 44 buttons in total and it took AGES. I did most of them while watching videos on YouTube and it took forever. I think the buttons actually took longer to sew on than the sleeves took to knit.

I’m a lot happier with Owls than I thought I’d be. As I mentioned in a previous post I’m a bit wary of knitting with bulky yarn. While the jumper is a lot bulkier than I’d usually wear, the shaping on the back and sides made it more fitted and less boxy than I expected.

If I were to knit it again (and I might one day) I would make it several inches longer and I’d change the way the sleeves are worked.

The pattern asks you to knit a tube for the body and two tubes for the arms. You then put some stitches from each sleeve and both sides of the body onto stitch holders and knit the whole thing together as you work the yoke. Finally you graft the held underarm stitches together using Kitchener stitch.

I think I’d have been happier if I just cast off those held stitches instead and then seamed them together instead of grafting. While they were sitting on holders (I used spare yarn), they pulled out of shape a bit. I think casting them off would prevent this and it would be almost as easy and seamless looking as grafting. Who checks out your underarms anyway?

I’m particularly happy with the neckline (featured in my dodgy selfie shots below). I like round necklines but often find them a bit close fitting and itchy. This one is just the right size to wear with a shirt collar but you don’t freeze to death or look under-dressed if you decide to just wear a tshirt underneath.

Overall I’m very happy and I think I’ll get quite a bit of wear out of my Owls. I’ll be returning to 4ply and 8ply knits now, but this project has shown me that bulky yarn doesn’t have to mean shapeless jumpers.