Owl sweater

I have knitted the owl sweater twice. Neither time for myself I might add.

Both times I have made heavy revisions to the pattern as the wool specified was not to hand and of course the people I knit it for had their own ideas about what they wanted it to look like. I have had to deal with requests for extra long arms and extra tiny waists ... at times it felt like I was rewriting the whole pattern, changing increases and decreases to suit the wool and torso's.

Only with all these changes there is one thing I do not know ... is it me or is it the wool or is it the pattern. Both sweaters have come out with a rather alarming bulge at the top. Giving one wearer a somewhat hunchbacked look, I'm not sure what it looks like after washing and am hoping it has improved. So either it is my cackhanded attempts at making revisions to the pattern or I'm misreading something. I won't sing my praises on pattern reading, as most projects involve some unravelling. This leaves me with my revisions, I'm concerned that I have made the same mistake twice with two different types of wool and sizes. So am wondering if I should knit the jumper again, for the 3rd time, but this time sticking to the pattern as closely as possible just to test the theory. On the other hand I'm sort of sick of the owl jumper.

And sewing on buttons for eyes takes forever.

It is autumn and the time of craft is upon us ...

I have entered a positive frenzy of crafting. I have managed to knit myself a poncho jumper, made a start on a new hat and am putting the final finishing touches on a jumper for a friend.

More importantly there is Julehygge prep! This year I want to make a different sort of decoration and have chosen to make a candy cane inspired Venetian mask. Last weekend I put down a couple of layers of acrylic paint - white on the front and silver on the inside. This weekend I must find a dowling rod or similar for the candy cane stick and some red ribbon. It is shocking but I have run out of red ribbon ... I just don't know what to say it's horrific.

However as I have had a lot of fun with the mask already I am rather tempted to buy another one and create a halloween mask. In silver and black. This is so that I will keep my mitts of the christmas mask and also so that I will have something to practice on ... see lots of very good and rational reasons to go and get some black acrylic paint, maybe some more glitter ...