Owl Love You Forever

I needed a quick little baby gift set, so that I could wing it on it's way up North... enter the "Hoot Cardigan" by Brenna Kotar.



I had almost a whole skein of the Berroco Vintage Breezeway left over from the Breezeway wrap, and since it is soft and machine washable (and Blue!), I thought it would be perfect.  However, after only a couple rows into the pattern, I started noticing some problems.  I thought I would write down all my notes in case I want to make another someday.

This pattern really is hard to understand as written, in my opinion… which is really a shame, because it is so cute.

• This pattern calls for you to cast on with an I-Cord cast on… very simple, and has a nice, finished look. However, in the I-cord cast on you should only cast on one additional stitch rather than two, in order to have your stitch count come out accurately in the end.
• Row 2 should have 4 “kf&b before and after every marker”. (Pattern only has you doing this 3 times instead of 4).
• You need to remember to work the owl cable pattern on the WS rows. This isn’t mentioned in the pattern.
• I used the "cabling without a cable needle" method as described by grumperina, which really makes those little owls a piece of cake!

Sleeves:

• Pattern says to knit sleeves until they are 0.5” short of desired length (but no mention of actual length/per size). I was making the newborn size, and off the internet, this corresponds to 4” as measured from the underarm.
• Also, I didn’t like that there wasn’t any arm shaping here, so this is what I did - Using magic loop, pick up all held stitches on scrap yarn, plus 7 under the arm (5 cast on stitches, plus 1 additional stitch on either side of these stitches to close any gaps. I put a marker in the center of these stitches to mark where I was going to decrease.)
• I did a decrease row as follows: Knit to 2 sts before marker, ssk, pass marker, k2tog (decreasing the sleeve by 2 stitches). I repeated this decrease row every 6 stitches, a total of 4 times. Then I added 2 rows of garter stitch, binding off purl-wise on a knit row so the bind off blended into the garter stitch cuff. 

I also decided to add on this darling little owl cabled hat, Aly's Owls by Diana Dzendzeluk and some worsted weight socks Ribbed Far-Away Baby Socks by Amber Ward (I love the look of booties... but they never seem to stay on, and thus aren't very practical in my opinion!)

Here is the finished set after some steam blocking the make the little owls pop!