Little Guy's Little Owl

What is it about owls? I just love them (especially barn owls!) and have this thing about incorporating them into knitting. I remember visiting all those rescued owls over the years at our local Audubon society and how we would be fascinated by their funny antics (dancing on their perch branches!) and wild ways.

Well this owl is a little more tame - a Christmas stocking with the owl graph from Spilly Jane Knits' owl socks used as the motif. I have several of her patterns, but haven't (until now) dared to try them!

I devised the actual stocking myself with a cast on of 48 stitches on size 8 DPNs (cuff down with a short row heel). The yarn is Jared Flood's new SHELTER pure wool. It's quite wonderful to work with on patterns like this and gets softer as you use it.



My stranded knitting on this Christmas stocking is obviously not perfect, but I learned a lot about stranded knitting by working on this over the past month - like how to carry the yarn invisibly across the back so I didn't have long "floats". I'm now inspired to try many more stranded patterns - like those beautiful Latvian mittens!