hooks and needles: an owl for valentine's day

hi there!

i'm so happy to introduce a new owl friend for little miss! i'm calling her val for now (really original i know, but nothing else has sounded right so far...)

i really love this little cuddly cutie and i can't wait for little miss to get her arms around her on valentine's day morning. i've asked joe three times this weekend if i could give it to her early, but i've been good and for now she's hiding...

this owl pattern was created by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches and i absolutely love it. Stacey is a phenomenal amigurumi designer and sells the cutest little animals and monsters in her etsy shop. she also sells patterns and kits to create your own amigurumi and has joined the new Craftsy.com team teaching great workshops and classes online.

i took the Nelson the Owl Workshop on Craftsy and let me tell you it was more than worth it! i highly recommend checking it out... it was very reasonably priced and it was so nice to be able to chat with the designer, ask questions about the pattern, and to share with others making the owls. the directions were easy to follow and very well explained.

now my little val...

she's actually not so 'little' - she measures almost 11" !! i made her using stash yarn left over from little miss's newborn blanket... her body, wings, and eyes were made with Lion Brand Baby's First which is a chunky weight. i didn't have any yellow in the Baby's First so for the beak and feet i used a double strand of some Lion Brand Baby Wool, also from my stash scraps. (yay for using up some of my stash, yarn shopping time!)

my owl follows the pattern exactly except for the wing construction and the addition of the cross-stitch heart...

for the wings i had to come up with a plan that would accommodate one wing's worth of pink yarn, cuz that's all i had. i obviously had a bit less than a full skein of my main color to start out with and the wing is where it caught up with me, not bad. i basically split the original wing pattern in half and crocheted it flat, 2 in each color, and then whip-stitched the two pairs together (right sides facing each other, then turned right-side out).

i have been wanting to do cross-stitch on crochet for awhile but hadn't quite found the right project... i thought this would be the perfect opportunity (and it was an easy peasy way to make it a special ♥ day owl!) i sketched out a quick grid and used some more leftovers bits.

overall i'm quite happy with how she turned out and am eager to make a few more. i think a snuggly owl would go great with a matching quick knit baby blanket as a go to newborn set. i'm so excited to see abby's reaction to it... tuesday morning is going to be so much fun!

be sure to check out Stacey's workshops, classes, and patterns available at craftsy.com - i really like everything i've seen on craftsy so far and i look forward to what's in store for the site. if you haven't checked it out, you should. there is something for everyone! i just signed up for Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster class taught by Stacey and can't wait to start (hopefully this week after i've gotten a little more work on this done...)

love.