Miss Ava's Owl

We had a pretty open weekend so I decided to make Miss Ava's birthday owl while I had the time.  Third time's a charm!  When I made my Duffers several weeks ago I learned a new cast on method that joins the yarn together.  I decided to use that for the owls as it then reduces the finish time.  Instead of having to sew up a whole side hoping the stitches match up, I just have to bind off the needles with the kitchener stitch. 

This method also allows me to use just one needle instead of two.  A while back I ordered new cables.  The one I used was 60 inches and worked out just right for being able to utilize the magic loop method with the number of stitches I had to work with.

The more owls I make, the easier and better they become.  I was also able to make better eyes more easily - which is the hardest part on my hands - with my longer cable needles. 

It was a bit of a challenge to sew up the side of the owl while also trying to stuff and shape it.  I've gotten a lot better with the kitchener stitch so that looks nice and didn't take me as long as in the past.  Here's the finished product:

These guys are so silly I look at them and just laugh!  Now that I've made three of them, there was definitely something amiss with Miss Abigail's owl.  That one ended up much taller than the other two and the only thing I can think is that I cast on extra stitches.  Check out the differences:

 

Obviously not a huge deal, but still puzzling to figure out what went on there!  Oh man, these are too awesome...

I have a long list of other projects to be working on.  I also signed up to do a Christmas Advent scarf for myself which I am very excited about.  The pattern releases a "clue" each day starting December 1.  I only hope I can keep up and figure out the lace patterns!