There’s a teeny little owl in my hair, and it’s making me very happy. I was just playing with a new yarn and it’s such a simple wee thing, but a few people have asked how I made him.
You might recognise the owl cable, it’s featured in many popular patterns, like my friend Kate’s adorable Owls and Owlet sweaters. My little accessory is just an owl cable worked without any surrounding stitches, but I was rather pleased with how well that worked out. Just in case your hair, or your lapel, is lacking in cabley owl goodness, here’s how to make one.
You’ll need a small amount of yarn and needles to work your yarn at a fairly tight gauge. I used a light worsted weight yarn and 3 mm needles, mainly because that’s what was within reach on my desk. The buttons I used for the eyes are really tiny, but if you can’t find any small enough beads or just french knots would also work. My owl is sewn onto a hair clip, but you could add a safety pin to make a brooch or sew little owl directly onto something as embellishments.
To knit the owl begin by casting on 8 sts; k 2rows; p 1row.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Work 7 rows in st st.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Work 5 rows in st st.
Next row: C4B, C4F.
Bind off knitwise.
Told you it was simple!
Use some dark thread to sew on eyes and weave in the yarn ends, using one to attach it to your accessory of choice.
The yarn I used is Madeline Tosh Worsted in Gilded and I’m delighted to be working on something larger in it, it’s such a wonderful, saturated colour. Perfect for cheering up a dreary day, and for keeping warm as autumn begins.
{ 76 comments… read them below or add one }
Adorable owl but gorgeous baby!
Thanks for posting the pattern! I have made my daughter and myself the owlet and owl sweaters for this fall. We both have fallen in love with owls.
Cassie
Adorable ~ I’ll make several to use instead of bows on gifts! Thank you for the directions.
Cuuuute!
Gorgeous :-) what a great idea!
so cute! looks like i have something fun to do tonight…
That is so cute and I know just the person to make it for too.
the cuttest little thing! Thanks for the great idea – you’re so creative!
Very cute!!
Thanks! Just made one.
my daughter will be thrilled! Thank you so much.
What a lovely idea!
ooooh me likey! Thanks Ysoldaxxxx
bravo!!!
This is sheer brilliance!
The owl is cute! But I really liked your last sentence with that kip picture. It just sounds and looks very peaceful. Thanks for that! :)
What a hoot!
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I have three people all calling out for one of these. It’ll be my first cable project! Thank you so much.
Wow, thank you so much! I look forward to having a go. And I love what you do here. Wish I were in Britain, we live in Germany and your blog and a few other knitting ones warm my heart.
Perfect for autumn!
Thank you for sharing! I Love your designs.
I have an owlish friend who will adore her new hair ornament :-}
Those are adorable. I can’t wait to see what you’re working on. :)
As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to make it. Adorable!! I just knit it this moment and I’m going to wear it with my new knitted top, The Buttercup, in Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool. Thank so much for sharing!!
Oh, by the way, I’m going to post a new podcast tomorrow and I speak a bit about you and your patterns, if you’d like to listen. (Sleepy Eyes Knits podcast, Episode #16 The Joy of Sox)
I love the owl!!
Great job!
So cute–thank you for sharing your fun idea. I hadn’t been by to read your blog in ages because nothing new showed up on my Bloglines subscription :-( I had figured you were busy traveling somewhere. This happened recently to another Wordpress blog I follow. Hope it gets fixed soon!
Can you knit me the baby as well? She is gorgeous!
whoa! the owl is cute and all but that last picture is awfully intriguing… :D
What a fantastic idea! I am making an owls jumper for myself at the moment, and I think an owl hairclip would be the perfect accessory for it :)
So cute ! thank you for sharing this great idea !
what a fantastic idea! yours looks great! thanks so much for sharing the directions.
He is adorable! While this shows my complete and utter ignorant beginner status, what does C4B C4F mean? I’d really like to know because I’d really like to make some :-)
hi just a quick question on food…on a previous blog you made a lunch with oatcakes, cheese and tomato. did you make the oatcakes? and are they sweet? and what kind of cheese did you use? thanks I love your blog!
it’s soooooo cute!
That owl is adorable!
Lovely owls!!!
perfect for some hats i’m knitting. thanks for the idea and pattern.
wow..it looks lovely!
I love this – but I have never attempted to cable before. Do you think this project would be a good one to try it on?
I love the color of the owl sweater. Is this Lion Brand yarn? I like that the owls are a subtle design and that they don’t detract from the well-made sweater, making it look corny or mawkish.
Hi! really nice! can you help me with the abbreviations please? I’m italian and I haven’t understood st st and C4B C4F… I didn’t find them
Thanks
Beatrice
can somebody translate little owl into crochet?
please
I also don’t know what c4f and c4b mean?! but it’s beautiful! thanks
I think the owl is lovely.
I am a fairly inexperienced knitter, but i just had to knit this, so i learnt how to knit cables from instructables. It was relatively easy to apply my now basic knowledge to this pattern.
Thank you so much for sharing
Link to tutorial: http://www.instructables.com/id/How_to_knit_a_cable/
FOR MARI
Thanks for your tutorial very much!
Yesssssssssssss :) Really easy to knit
Kisses
Thank you so much. I just made 2 this evening and love them :)
It’s gorgeous and so timely for me – I was driving home from work today, thinking about how I might try to make a brooch out of the owls and owlet sweater – and you’ve already done the hard work!
Now I just need to teach myself how to cable!
Thank you for the owl clip pattern..I have put a link on my freebies blog too..hugs Khris
CB4, CF4 means cable back 4 [stitches] ((put 4 stitches on needle held in back), cable 4 front. Knit the ones on the front needle first.
I made one of these last night and it just didn’t work for me. Not sure what I did wrong – I assume you stay in st st, so 2 of the cable rows were purls. Did I do it wrong? I ended up with a yellow twist – no discernible owl to be found. Maybe I cabled too tightly – ?? Any help appreciated – I love these things!
For those of you still curious I recently and happily found out what CB4, CF4 means! It means to put 2 stitches on cable needle, hold in back, knit 2 stitches from regular needle, then knit the 2 stitches from cable needle (now you have 4 knitted stitches). Next, for the last 4 stitches this time hold the first 2 stitches on a cable needle in front, knit the 2 stitches left on the regular needle and then knit the 2 stitches from the cable needle. Voila! Did I write ‘stitches’ enough in this post?? I hope I didn’t make it more confusing for anyone…
The owl is so cute! And so are your other knitted creatures! Can you share the pattern for the hedgehog? It’s adorable, and I collect hedgehogs!
This is adorable! Owls are wonderful (almost as much as cats :)! I don’t have much use for cables, but this would be a great thing to make and put on a hair clip or a brooch.
This is my first time trying cables, and I an a new knitter too. I think I have done something wrong. The last row, the row I BO, is that the ears? If so should I have BO 4 then the other 4? Mine hasn’t come into points. However I may have also done my st st wrong between the cabling rows, should I have started wiith a knit row or a purl row?!?!?! This pattern is so cute! I want to put them onto clips for part of my girlfriend’s Christmas box.
Hi! I’m from Sweden, and would really love to make this adorable owl for my daughter! But I can’t find out what your abbreviations means…I’d be so happy if you could write it out for me. I’m used to knit ‘in English’, but I never came across this: C4B, C4F ???
Greetings from Sweden :)
Marie, try checking out http://www.knittinghelp.com I haven’t checked there yet, but that’s where I’d look for a good explanation. I think it probably means to work 4 stitches as a cable, but to put them either in the front (F) or back (B) of your work.
Hope that made sense, but really check the website!
Sara
These are so darn cute for the teachers in charge of the reduce and recycle club at the local elementary school. Thanks so much!
That’s really cute!!!
Yikes, I can’t believe it’s taken me 9 months to find this beauty. I’ve made mittens with the same design and never thought to just pull out the owl design to make something else. Brilliant! I’ll be linking on Facebook. Thanks!
Thank you! love ‘em thay are the cutest little things. I bought the jumper pattern too :)
I posted a little picture here:
http://motherrhythm.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-little-birthday-gifts.html
How gorgous! Thank you for making my day! I was feeling down and I found this lovely owl to adorn a sweater for my two grandchildren; thanks again.
OMG, ADORABLE!! I love, LOVE, love OWLS!!! Thanks for sharing!
That is very special. What an amazing heirloom for that lucky baby!
Its beautiful. I will make one & see if I can make it into a bookmark
Squeel. I just found this darling little owl hair do-hickey and I’m going to make them for all of my nieces. What a fun idea. I have been so inspired by your blog. I am fairly new to it and stayed up WAY too late last night browsing and adding sweaters to my Ravelry queue. Your photographs are stunning – the colors, amazing. And your knitting leaves me speechless. It’s so interesting to get a peak ‘behind the scenes’ of a designer. You’re so playful with your style. I am so square. It really has been inspiring. Thanks!!
I am fairly new to knitting, please tell me what C4B and C4F means? Would like to try knitting your hooty owl! Thank you.
C4B and C4F are abbreviations for ways to make 4 stitches into cables. 2 stitches will be crossing in front of (or behind) the 2 stitches that follow them. C4B = slip 2 stitches to a cable needle or dpn, hold that needle to the BACK of the work, knit the next 2 stitches on the left needle, then knit the 2 stitches off of the cable needle (you may return them to the left needle to do this, or just knit them right off of the cable needle). C4F is the same, except you hold the 2 stitches on the cable needle to the FRONT of the work.
This will be my practice cable project. I have never did cable before and my daughter loves owls. I’m going to learn with this pattern. I know it is small but I have to learn slowly since I’m a perfectionist I can always start all over!
Thank you so much for this fun project. I know she will love the owl hair clips! :)
My son is a sophomore at Rice University, whose mascot is Sammy the Owl. This is a new idea for a quick little handmade gift for him! Thanks!
My friend Kailee made me 2 of these because I <3 owls, and I have them in my bible as bookmarks!!
This is fantastic, my older sister has an obsession with owls (I do believe this is the repercussion of a Harry Potter fan), I’ve been attempting to make her something using the cabled owl (sweaters, hats, socks you name it, I’ve tried) but she always seems to find it, so it ends up going to someone else, (house rule), so when I saw this I knew it was a project I could complete in a very short time, so it would go undetected in my knitting basket. So thanks for sharing this blissfully adorable pattern for us, it ingenious so simple yet inspiring, I plan to have one made by the time she gets home from work today.
Just found this on ravelry – thanks for sharing, it’s SO cute!
How quick and fun. My daughter’s school mascot is an owl. She will love it. She saw yours and wanted one. Thanks for the pattern. Really like your site. Be Back.
Well when I first saw this all I knew how to do was knit simple scarves, but I knew a friend who would really like this so I set off to figuring it out. Had a little bit of trouble with this at first, but after a few practice runs and some tweaking I figured it out! For me (and maybe I’m doing the cables wrong), I had to cable front first then cable back, and I used purls for all of the cables instead of normal knits. Also, the ears came to a sort-of point (but too flat) when I did it, so while I was sewing the buttons on I used a little extra thread and sewed the middle of the top lightly back and down and it looks great! I’m pretty excited.
:) Thanks! This was my first cable project, and though it didnt turn out perfect, I love my little owl ♥
i was just thinking of making a clip! This is so cute! I cant wait!
I made a cute owl cardigan for a baby about 35 years ago. It had the same owls on it as you show but it was not a pullover. Are you familiar with that pattern and do you know where I could obtain a copy of it?
Thanks so much for your help. I love the owl.
I am using the owl pattern on a pair of mittens for my youngest grandson. I just have to get some buttons before I can continue the mitten. I have to have them finished by the end of the year.