Midweek Squee: Oscar the Owl

So you remember back at the beginning of the year I said my New Years Resolution was to learn to knit? And have you noticed I’ve been suspiciously quiet about it? That’s because, after trying a couple of times, I got really, REALLY frustrated and consigned my efforts to the bad idea box.

BUT! It turns out that I was giving up too easily, and the simplest of things would help me actually achieve a cloth of knitted goodness with only the occasional hole when it came to performing a make one (honestly, the crochet increase is so much cleaner!). That thing was – a set of steel needles of a decent length. I’d been trying with short bamboo ones I got from a magazine (‘oh the short ones are good for beginners’ they told me. ‘Bullpoop’ said my Mum, handing over a few sets of proper ones, ‘you need to be able to tuck them under your elbows!’)

Disclaimer, my Mother actually never said ‘Bullpoop’. Nor it’s sweary equivalent. She would never use such language.

It was the expression on her face which said it for her.

So, again I try casting on. Then I try a row of knit stitches. Then I scream in frustration trying to work out the purl stitch and watch around a million YouTube videos before it clicks.

And lo, I created Oscar.

I highly recommend the Mira Grant ‘Newsflesh’ trilogy to the right by the way – post zombie apocalypse political conspiracy horror sci-fi. Very well written and genuinely funny as well as touching enough to make you cry. I’m on my second read through of book one at the moment and I still can’t put it down, even though I know what happens. 

Oscar the Owl is a bookend pattern I found in Let’s Get Crafting’s Knitting and Crochet magazine which I subscribe to (free yarn through my letter box EVERY MONTH! What’s not to love?!). He’s incredibly cute and the pattern was so simple once I worked out the basic stitches (and watched the afore mention million YouTube videos). He’s stuffed with normal polyfil, but has three big stones in his base to keep him weighted down. The original (and the photo of mine above) has a stitched beak but after taking this photo I decided I didn’t like how it looked because my embroidery is shocking, so I covered it with felt instead:

Much better!

He’s not perfect, but when I gave him to my Mum the other week for her birthday she was still impressed, which is all I ever wanted. There you go Mum, you can die happy now – one of your kids has FINALLY learnt to knit!

Also, I wrote to the magazine to say thank you, and they published my letter this month 😀