Vintage Thursday - The Owl Cable

For the past couple years I have noticed a surge in the popularity of knitted owls, especially cable owls. Recently I was asked to make this owl cable hat, but the cable owl is so versatile and easy that it's found in sweaters, mittens, gloves... just about anything. But, this being Vintage Thursday, I feel compelled to point out that (like many clever motifs) the owl cable is not a new innovation.

Enter Workbasket and Home Arts Magazine (Number 3, Volume 37, December 1971):

This volume has been well-loved

I received a slew of old Workbasket magazines from my grandmother a couple years back, mostly for the early part of the 1970's. They are a real study in changing domestic fashion, addressing everything to husbands making comments about your thighs being like saddlebags, to growing violets and making granny square ponchos. (I'm definitely going to write more about them in the future, especially the granny square fad.) One of the interesting things about this issue is the Owl Snowsuit, which my grandmother has noted in her scrupulously neat handwriting on the tattered cover.

 Do you see those googly eyes? Yes, those are owl googly eyes!

Unfortunately, this pattern only comes in size 1, 2 and 3. But there's the sweater AND mittens with owls! I'm really tempted to make the mittens, but with a modification: instead of sport weight yarn on US #3 dpns, I'd use worsted weight yarn, just like the plan mitten pattern from 1944 I use calls for to keep the chill out.