Bitches Get Stitches

Back in November 2008 I was swatching with some nice grey Rowan yarn. I thought at first that it wanted to become bobbles – I had an idea that I would make a sweater inspired by the texture of the arses of some wonderful rhinos I had recently encountered (no joke – see this post). But I also had another thought – to make a sweater featuring the owl cable – a stitch pattern that has been around since (at least) the 1940s, featuring mostly on children’s garments. As soon as I swatched up my first owl, I knew that I was not going to make a rhino-arse sweater, I was going to make an o w l sweater.

When I posted pictures of my finished sweater on my blog – making full acknowledgment of all the other owl-related designs that I had seen which had inspired me –…