Failed Transfiguration OWL Fall 2011.

14th Nov- While I actually cast on around 8th September, I hadn’t even touched it until recently, so I’m calling it started 6th November. I’ve just finished the waist decreases. :)

8th Dec- It’s going well, I’m nearly done with the second set of does, so that’s my “third” chart repeat.

11th Dec- flail I’m past halfway! Underarm steek stitches are added, started 4th chart repeat.

13th Dec- dances around like a crazy person I’ve added the neck steek and am on my way through the last chart repeat! Hoping to finish by the 19th.

22nd Dec- abfseuiebfqxcoas IT’S DONE! Blocking right now.

Notes:

Colors:
Moony = Silver
Wormtail = Pumice Bark
Padfoot = Black
Prongs = Doe

Color Choices:
Be sure to choose very contrasting colors! As you can see in my swatch photo (2nd from the bottom), the color I originally chose for the rat looks nice, but it’s not quite contrasting enough. Once I had knit the row of rats in the sweater, it was very hard to make out. Because I was already several rows above the rat when I acknowledged that the color needed to be changed, I carefully “duplicate stitched” in a new color, Bark, that I had in my stash. I put “duplicate stitch” in quotes because it’s not quite the same. Instead of leaving in the Pumice and having two layers of yarn in that area, I pulled it out, once stitch at a time, and “knit” in the Bark. I’ll write a tutorial on this because it’s a bit hard to explain.

Fitting: The sleeves are a bit too loose. I could do with 25 less stitches. The sleeve caps also tend to puff up a little on me. The bust was 31” pre-blocking and about 33” post-blocking. The ribbing really evened out.