The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Yeah, if you’re my age, you catch that reference.

I think owls are kinda creepy. My grandmother used to say, Never acknowledge an owl. If they ask who, always ignore them. Never give them your name.

The fear, of course, is that it would not be an owl, after all, but some bad medicine, some evil thing that would only look like a harmless owl. And then, knowing your name, it would hold some power over you. Sure, some owls are mere owls. But on the off chance the owl is not what it seems… Better safe than sorry.

So, I’m not a member of the owl fan club. But you know how I love the way you can knit cables to make pictures. So when I joined this Hat of the Month Group on Ravelry and January’s hat patterns include Who? in all it’s owliness, I was conflicted. I wanted to do the cables, but did not want an owl hat.

(I’ve seen patterns where that particular cable pattern is turned upside down, making it look like goats… Clever usage, but that seems a little… demonic, doesn’t it?)

Thanks to M, who pointed out that the cables were just a basic shape that only looked like an owl because you expected them to look like an owl. She squinted at the picture on the pattern for a moment and said “These look like cats to me.”

And, by golly, she was right! So, I made just a few minor adjustments in the pattern (mainly in the embroidery, but also by adding a tail) and may I present my non-creepy version of this hat:

Who? Me-ow!

My mods include adding a tail, whiskers, and tube-shaped beads for eyes instead of round buttons. Here's a close-up of that: