These are so fun to make. I’ve been wanting to make some of these since I saw the tutorial on Moonstitches a few weeks ago but I just didn’t get around to it. Now that I’ve made a few I can’t wait to find some different fabrics and make more. They go so quickly and they are so cute!

I dug out all the fabrics in my stash that seamed to be the right weight (and later remembered some others I forgot). I’ve got some wools, a couple of corduroys and a velveteen (so soft). The linen for the tummy pieces came from my needlework box - I like the difference in texture. Even more fun than making all the little bodies was going through my button box and choosing eyes.

Here’s the whole group.

 

I think they’ll look very cheerful hung up somewhere around the house - maybe in one of the doorways or across a shelf. They make cute ornaments too. Rob even suggested sewing them together, tile fashion, into a blanket - wouldn’t that be great a whole blanket of little owls! I think I’d make a the bodies a little more hexagonal so they’ll fit together without any big spaces.


Just an aside but this is my 100th blog entry! I hadn’t realized I’d written so many. I have a lot of fun planning out (and taking pictures of) what to share with you guys.

 

 

I’m halfway through spinning up my alpaca fibre. I’ve got one ounce spun and plied and set and skeined. It looks so lovely and feels even better. It seemed a bit rough when I was doing the plying; I was worried that I’d put too much twist into it and made it kind of wiry but a little bath and a bit of a stretch plumped the fibres back up again. I could just sit here and squeeze it ... but then I couldn’t type. I can’t wait to get started on the second ounce and have two of these lovely little skeins sitting in my basket.

 

I’m wearing new socks today. I finished them last night and they are so comfy. I started the first one in the Calgary airport on our way to Nova Scotia and finished the second one last night. The plain stocking stitch made these the perfect carry-around project while we were on vacation - I could pull these out of my purse anytime we stopped for a coffee and didn’t need to worry about what row I was on.

I used the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula from Knitty to figure out how many stitches to use and how to do the heels. For the toes I used the Magic Cast-On. I highly recommend this to anyone else doing toe-up socks - it is completely invisible (inside and out) and doesn’t require a provisional cast-on or waste yarn.


I used the tubular bind-off I learned for the Endpaper Mitts to finish off my socks. It looks nice and is really stretchy. It goes pretty quickly once you get into a rhythm too. I haven’t really figured out how much of a tail I need though; I’m so worried about not having enough yarn that I always cut three times as much as I need.


I love this yarn. It feels lovely to knit of course but what I really like is the colour. I just couldn’t resist the skein with its softly muted browns and shock of sky blue. I had no idea how it would knit up. I really like the stripes I got.