I tried this pattern before but gave up. Now that I am a bit more experienced, I want to make a version that looks like Janis’s newer top down one, but follow this pattern because I can’t print the newer one.

CO 36 stitches & do 14 rounds of broken ribbing according to the new pattern. R1 - K, R2 - P1, K2. Four rounds of garter in the dark green, then 4 even rounds in fleck before starting thumb (round 14 in old pattern). I used KFB increases so I ended up with 14 stitches for the thumb.

I changed color after round 33, but instead of cutting the fleck yarn, I put the held thumb stitches on another circular needle & knit two rounds in the fleck yarn, meaning one less end to weave in. I did 4 rounds of dark green in garter for the top & thumb. I did 8 rounds of sage green for the top & 4 for the thumb.

Used buttons for the eyes.

Believe it or not, I even sewed the buttons on without noticing my mistake! It wasn’t until I looked at the pictures I took that I saw I did the owls differently. The pattern has purls for the owl’s body & I followed that for the first one I made. By then I thought I had the pattern down pat & didn’t reference it again & knit the body stitches on the second one. The knit stitches allow the cables to open up more & it looks more like an owl. And of course I had woven in all the ends…. I’ll just have to rip back to the beginning of the owl body & redo from there on. What a PITA!