The Majestic Moose

Surprise! I have a new pattern that is part of the Knitty Surprise. It’s called The Majestic Moose.

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I love tacky Christmas sweaters with animals on them, but I never feel like I can wear them before my birthday (the last day of November) or after Christmas. I wanted to come up with something that had a little bit of that vibe but was wearable through out the colder seasons. After some discussion about hilarious but unused cold weather animals with my sister, I ended up with a moose.

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It took me a while to figure out why I subconsciously found moose funny. Moose heads are a classic comedic device that’s used in some of my favorite old movies and TV shows. Somebody needs to bring moose comedy back.

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I designed the intarsia chart last spring after I finished my Alice sweater while I still had intarsia on my mind. I didn’t want the moose to be overly realistic looking because that reminded me of hunting apparel. At the same time, I didn’t want it to look like a Bullwinkle knockoff. I think I came up with a nice balance.

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Because of the intarsia, the front and back on the vest are knit flat and then seamed. The neck and armhole bands are picked up after seaming and knit in the round. I usually try to avoid seams because I’m lazy, but seamless intarsia is a thousand times more work than knitting it flat and seaming. The nice thing about knitting the vest in pieces was that I could work on the back while watching movies and work on the intarsia when I wanted something more attention demanding.

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In case you were curious, the horse’s name is Oliver and he belongs to my sister. Whenever I take photos at my parents’ house where he lives he photobombs me. If I try to make him get out of the frame he starts to poke at my tripod. With this shoot I gave up and let him be in my pictures. It worked out in the end, but I did have to rewash my vest when I was finished. Oliver kept rubbing his face on my vest trying to get me to pet him and stop giving the camera all of the attention. He’s a bit like a really big dog.


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29 responses to “The Majestic Moose”

  1. I love the vest…very cute. I am not really into Moose heads. I may use a different chart when I knit myself this one. Would that be bad?

    I think Oliver is a beauty. He seems like such a ham. I have a cat that loves to be photographed. He will even “pose” when he sees me holding a camera. It’s really funny. 🙂

    1. Andi

      It’d be pretty easy to substitute the char for something else. The nice thing about intarsia is that it usually doesn’t effect the construction so you can leave it out or change it without having to do much work.

  2. i need to adapt this into a boy pattern! thebestthingever.

    1. Andi

      I’d love to see that if you do it!

  3. Haha! I love the photobombs by Oliver, he looks so cute! So does your vest too btw, you did great job with it Andi. 😀 I wonder if I can modify that moose head into a horse head… > . < I want a vest too, but I'm a horse-mad gal, so it'd have to be a pony for me, although the moose does look fantastic.

  4. Andi, I adore it! And Oliver too. I’m too busy knitting Miette (still!) to start learning intarsia but the moose will be my first stop when I get to that point! I so, so think you should write a book. But that’s just me 🙂

  5. Congrats! I like the explanation of the vest idea. Photos are great!

  6. I hate intarsia…but I have to admit that I LOVE this vest, lol. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the blue?… Maybe it’s the cute cropped length? I don’t know what it is (and I don’t know if I can pull it off) but I really really want one.

  7. Christie

    Congratulations, Andi! I think it’s such a whimsical pattern. Love it!

  8. Adorable! Congrats!

  9. its awesome, congratulations! I knew it must be yours the second I saw the little thumbnail on knitty =)

  10. Fantastic! I love this idea so much!

  11. Congrats on the Knitty spot! I remember when they didn’t choose your awesome cheetah hat– thought they were nuts. This is pretty quirky/cute, though. Right up their alley! 🙂 The photos are adorbs.

  12. Oh man, I love this! I am so happy to see the seedling of that Alice design – I was sad that you weren’t making a pattern for that. Congrats, knitty extraordinare!

  13. Lovely pattern and lovely horse! That’s a nice photobombing 🙂

  14. So cute!! I love your blog! You’re adorable!

  15. I always love how cute your pics are but this must be my fav yet. It has a touch of the Garland about it and I mean that in a good way!

  16. How cool is that??? Congrats, Andi! You are so adorable. Your moose sweater is awesome!

  17. Ah, the majestic moose — one of the many interesting furry animals you may see on a høliday in Sweden this year!

    Seriously, that is one cute moose vest… I share your love of tacky Christmas sweaters! I actually don’t think your moose is tacky at all, and I will definitely be knitting one! Congrats on being the Knitty surprise!

  18. Absolutely AMAZING. I love this!

  19. Casey

    awesome sweater!!

  20. What a fun pattern!

  21. You are the queen of fab intarsia! The moose is delightful. Love it! So glad it is a pattern for all us to share in.

  22. Jennifer

    Love this pattern!!!! I am a middle school teacher and like to keep the kids amused. This should do it. I usually do not like picture sweaters but this is so cute. I ordered up the knitpicks yarn and swatched last night. I did pick a more muted tone for the body. Will post on Rav. Thank you for sharing!!!oh yeah congrats on the Knitty Publication!!!!

  23. I adore your moose vest and the whole outfit and the rosy cheeks.

  24. I love the vest, and the horse…but tell me more about the boots. I want the boots too.

    1. They’re Doc Martens, but I don’t think they make this style anymore.

  25. Deborah

    Hi there

    i am trying out you pattern – thanks !!! I am a little stuck – maybe I am being doff ( South African slang for “stooopid” :)) but I am at the part where I need to bind off for the armhole. I am doing a medium size .Ok, so I increased until I had my 90 stitches and worked and then it says bind off 6 stitches and then you should have 74 stitches ??? what am I missing ? what happened to the other 10 stitches ? Sorry , if you could just explain that I would be truly appreciative .

    Thanks

    Deb

    1. If you look closely, you’ll see that that for the increase section, the sizes are written as S [M, L, 1X, 2X] so for M, you should only increase to 82 sts. I know it’s a little confusing to read, but that’s how Knitty formats patterns.

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