Crochet Project: Owl

Last week, I had been browsing through some fun/silly crochet patterns, looking for something quick and easy I could make as a small gift for my Mom. During my search I found several great patterns that I will more than likely make someday for myself or friends, and along the way, somehow I stumbled upon a cute owl amigurumi pattern. As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect! I just had to make one for my Mom, because she loves and collects owls.
Crocheted stuffed owl toy sitting in front of a tan  background. The owl has a brown head, medium blue and matching lighter  turquoise body, brown and turquoise wings, turquoise and brown eyes and  an orange beak.
I made this owl with leftover Red Heart Supersaver yarn in Coffee, Blue, Turqua and Pumpkin, with a size G crochet hook. And, as usual, I did make a few slight modifications to the original pattern to get my project just right:
Body: I switched to blue yarn on round 17, and at round 27 I switched to turqua, just to include a bit more color in the stuffy, and because my Mom likes blues (better than brown). I also added a few extra rounds toward the end to make it a little bit taller. And I kept decreasing my rounds until I had 15 stitches and then stitched the body closed (after finishing stuffing) with single crochets.
Eyes: I think maybe there is a typo in the pattern: In the “white” section where it says: “Round 4 (1 hdc in the next 2 st, 2 sc in the next st) x 6 (24)” - I think the hdc should instead be sc - at any rate, that’s what I used. Also for the eyes, instead of working two separate pieces (which would mean more sewing to attach them - and I very much dislike sewing), I just worked the first round of the eye in brown color, and the rest in the turqua to make one disk per eye.
Wings: To incorporate more color into the owl, I worked the first 5 rounds of the wing in brown, the next 5 rounds in turqua, and the last 5 rounds in brown.
Legs: I decided not to include the legs. I attempted to make my own flat disk-like orange bird feet to attach (to match the orange beak), but they didn’t look quite right and I didn’t have the time to perfect them before I needed/wanted to present the gift to my Mom.
I gave my Mom her new owl on Monday and, as expected, she LOVED it! :-)

Also, a note on "Amigurumi": Amigurumi - which literally translates as "crocheted or knitted stuffed doll", is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. This is a term I had never heard of before last week, but apparently since this owl stuffy is crocheted in the round, the Amigurumi label is appropriate for it. 25 years crocheting and I’m still learning new things! :-)

2 comments:

  1. Great owl! I love ami's but they need to be crocheted tightly to look their best, and I'm a loose crocheter. The sheep I made last year is an ami, but it took 2 attempts to turn out halfway decent. I think I posted about the sheep here on the blog.

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  2. Thanks and yes, I remember your cute sheep. I typically crochet quite tightly so for once that wasn't a problem for me. You could probably just use a size or two (or three) smaller hook if you crochet more loosely. None of the stuffed things I've ever made needed to be extremely tight to look nice - you just don't want the stuffing to show through the stitches too much.

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