crochet cabled owl - row by row instructions

Owls. I'm still looking for teachers gifts and running out of time. The owls interest me because they are my son's school mascot. So the teachers would likes owls, right?

One can only hope. So I've seen a few cable patterns online unfortunately most of the patterns were for sale. I begrudge no one to charge for their hard work, I'm just poor at the moment. So I saw a blog, Crochet with Cris, who posted a pic of a their project from a free pattern on Ravelry call Owl Mitts,  by Erika Ward. I'd assume the pattern was written for veteran crochet folk to figure out.

So this was my first attempt at the pattern. There is a bit of guessing involved in the way the pattern is written. You'll notice I overlapped my cables in the same way instead of opposite which definitely looks less like an owl to me. That line is the Owl cross and your piece can look significantly different depending how you interpret that line.

You'll notice the cables are now going in the right  directions. The prominent direction depends on if you place the next stitches in front of or behind the 2 previous stitches. As you see at the bottom left while all 4 stitches are on the same side of the post the side labeled 1 is behind the 2 side. The buttons I added in editing the photo just to show what it would look like. Most of the patterns I've seen add the buttons, but the eyes are pretty well defined you probably don't have to add them unless your yarn was a shade that hid the cabling...like black. The process can sometime leave holes or gaps in between the rows as this pattern does. Above and below the cross of the eyes and at the bottom of the stomach, the top of the next cross are the most notable. A few whip stitches along the backside in those 3 spaces may be in order. Cris says that the spaces closed themselves when used in the pattern for mitts so It would probably be an individual preference thing to actually make sure the holes are closed, and may totally depend on the project as well.

*10/16/15 edit in purple (original post 'unseen' in blue)
I believe in the original post the line-by-line below was pasted from notepad and somehow made transparent against the background. It would only show after changing the color from black, hence all the colors. Row 4 below does not match the picture but is how I prefer it to actually look. Row 8 has notes to switch the prominent posts, the change matches the pictures. I hope to add photos of the edited version soon as I've been working on a new project.


As Cris mentions the pattern takes some guess work and perhaps a little alteration. The direction of the fp (or bp) determines the way the stitches cross which will enhance the owl or make you wonder what your looking at. After the cross line it will look a bit wonky, but the next lines will work it out.

JUST the owl motif: made from top down

Ch, 14, dc in3rd ch from hook and across (12dc - each motif is 12 st across.)

*post sts will always be in the row immediately before st

row 1: (owl cross) fptr around 5th and 6th post,ch 2,reaching IN FRONT of previous sts fptr around post 1 and 2 , fptr around post 11 and 12,ch 2, reaching BEHIND 2 previous sts fptr around post 7 and 8, ch 1 turn

*for some reason the original pattern doesn't take in the fact that you turn and are now using bp - back post stitches. All that means is instead of reaching to the front you reach to the back keeping all the raised/cabled/post stitch on one side.

row 2: (owl 1) bpdc around next 2 st, 2 dc in ch 2 space, bpdc around next 4 st, 2 dc in ch 2 space, bpdc around next 2 st, ch 1, turn

row 3: (owl 2) fpdc around next 2 st, dc in next 2 dc, fpdc around next 4 st, 2 dc in next 2 dc, fpdc around next 2 st, ch 1, turn

*in this cross (the stitches cross) the layering will be reversed. Prominent

or top posts went from outside corners to inside in first cross, This time top post will go from inside toward outside.Establishing the owls crest and eyes

row 4: bptr around 5th and 6th post,ch 2,reaching BEHIND previous sts bptr around post 1 and 2 , bptr around post 11 and 12,ch 2, reaching IN FRONT of 2 previous sts bptr around post 7 and 8, ch 1 turn

row 5: repeat row 2 in fp

row 6: repeat row 3 in bp

*you are now at the chest area of the owl. I suggest another row, which is the extra row 2 in the mitt pattern

row 7: repeat row 3 in fp **(This is the repeat row)

I think I rather like the triple post in row 8 reversed. So the first cross would be BEHIND and the second IN FRONT. This resembles the photo above where the 'body' comes to the center and drops straight down. The other triple posts kinda get lost in the background but i think that looks more like the legs. NOTE that the second cross above (row 4) Is opposite whats in my pictured example. The outside of the 'face' crossing over top into the center seems to work better. These are of course entirely up to you.

row 8: bptr around 5th and 6th post,ch 2,reaching IN FRONT of previous sts bptr around post 1 and 2 , bptr around post 11 and 12,ch 2, reaching BEHIND 2 previous sts bptr around post 7 and 8, ch 1 turn

row 9: repeat row 2 in fp