Before I became a one-woman hat knitting factory I managed to make a warm sweater for my 12-year-old daughter Elise. It was the Owl sweater designed by Kate Davies. You can find the pattern here.
Kate is such a talented designer with a great eye for colour and I love everything that she´s done.
There is a reason why the sleeves are a bit extra long.
It was a quick knit. Or it could have been a quick knit.
Thick alpaca yarn and 6 mm needles – for me who usually knit with 2 mm needles it was almost a shock to see the progress. But then...
I was almost done with the body part when Elise came home from school after the annual visit to the school nurse.
Not only had she outgrown me – which admittedly isn´t that hard since I´m only 159,5 cm tall - but the school nurse also predicted that Elise would grow another 7-8 cm in the next two years.
So I decided to rip and add a bit of extra length to make the sweater last more than one season.
And it was still a fairly quick knit.
The owls are so cute!
I´ve got a thing about owls and I have to confess that I´m very close to starting an owl collection.
But I´m fighting the urge, because we do not really have any room for an owl collection in our already crowded, little flat.
I like it that all the button eyes differ a little in size and colour.
The buttons were donated by my mum, aka the Button Queen.
Mum has a collection of an estimated 600 000 buttons. It that might be the largest one in Sweden, perhaps in all of Scandinavia – but she still does not enjoy parting with any of the buttons.
However, for this good cause she managed to dig out 18 pairs of nearly identical mother-of-pearl buttons for the eyes.
And to sew on all the buttons probably took as much time as it took to knit the whole sweater!
Ah, flashback! Ett av de første innleggene jeg leste i bloggen din - eller har husk om - er mora di sin knappesamling, og hvordan du og E (?) sto i dette.
Fin genser, og flott at dattera di forts bruker dine hjemmestrikkede ting :D
Posted by: Pinneguri | January 16, 2011 at 10:01 PM
The sweater is lovely! I am sure your daughter will enjoy wearing it through the cold winter months, and hopefully next winter too since you added extra length. I have thought many times about knitting this sweater for myself, and now your post is inspiring me again!
Posted by: kristieinbc | January 17, 2011 at 07:01 AM
Vilket genialiskt sätt att få åtgång på knappsamlingen! Snygg och användbar tröja, grattis!
Posted by: Jii | January 17, 2011 at 02:14 PM
Nydelig genser du har strikket. Det er så morsomt med disse uglene. Jeg holder nå på å strikke en liten uglekjole!
Det var litt av en knappesamling din mor har. Håper du får lov til å dukke ned i den når du trenger knapper!
Posted by: LivM | January 18, 2011 at 02:56 AM
That looks lovely! Good thing you wrestled those buttons from your mother, they're wonderful.
Posted by: Faeriecollege.wordpress.com | January 18, 2011 at 02:48 PM
Such a beautiful sweater but, I'm sorry, I cannot get the thought out of my head that you are the daughter of a woman who has 600,000 buttons. 600,000 buttons, well now minus about 36? I am transfixed by the thought of how amazing that must be!
Posted by: Noreen | January 19, 2011 at 07:37 PM
Elise över 160 cm alltså! Shit. Jag hänger inte alls med. Otroligt fin tröja också. Och sjyssta knappar :) Lunch snart hörrö?
Posted by: Clarissa | January 21, 2011 at 01:39 PM