My Little Owl Family (Pattern)

Little balls of scrap yarn accumulate in my house. There's always that little bit of yarn left over after a project... or I've had people give me bags of scrap yarn, knowing I will find a project for it. I designed these owls to use up really small (.3 oz) balls of yarn.

Supplies:
Worsted weight yarn in main color, plus small amounts in white, black and yellow/orange
Size F hook (Size K for Mama Owl)
Yarn Needle
Stuffing material (I used fiberfill)

After making my first owl, I decided the best order is to make the face, wings and bottom first, then make the main body. That way, you can attach the face while you can still access the inside, and when you are working on the body, you can just keep going until you just have enough yarn left for sewing and the top tufts.

Wings (make 2):
Chain 6.
Starting in second chain from hook, work a slip stitch, sc, hdc, dc and tc (your stitches are getting taller as you work back along the chain). Finish off, leaving about 6" for sewing wing to body. You will sew the wing to the body along the edge of the treble crochet.
Tip: to make the wing a little more solid, I do a linked double crochet and treble crochet. Rather than doing a yarn over for the double crochet, I pull up a loop from the hdc before it. Likewise, when I do the treble crochet, I do one yarn over and pull up a loop from the double crochet before it. Here is a video link from Moogly on linked double crochet.

I work in a spiral, using a stitch marker to mark the beginning.

Bottom:
Round 1: Make 6 hdc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 hdc in each stitch (12)
Round 3: *2 hdc in first stitch, hdc in next stitch*, repeat around (18)
Finish off.






Face:
With white yarn, make 8 dc in magic ring. Tighten ring, but do not join.
Turn the half circle so you are working along the flat edge. Along the first dc, make a sc, hdc, dc, hdc, sc. Slip stitch into the center, then make sc, hdc, dc, hdc, sc along the double crochet on the other side of center.

Body: 
Round 1: Make 6 hdc in magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 hdc in each stitch (12)
Round 3: *2 hdc in first stitch, hdc in next stitch*, repeat around (18)
Repeat Round 3 until your owl is all tall as you'd like it to be, or until you only have about two yards of yarn left. Don't cut yarn...

Sew on face, with top of heart around row 3. With black yarn, embroider eyes as shown (I did a knot with a double strand of yarn). With yellow or orange, embroider beak.

Sew wings to side.

Add stuffing, then put bottom in place. Do a row of SC, working through both the body and the bottom. When you only have a few stitches left to go, you can push a little more stuffing through the opening, if needed. Finish off.

Tufts: 
Cut 6 strands of yarn about 5" long (if you don't have enough of your main color left, supplement with another color, or the white you used for the face). Take three strands, double them over and pull a loop through at the side of the top of the head. Pull the yarn ends (6 strands, since they're doubled) through the loop and tighten. Trim if needed. Repeat on other side of the head.

Finish off.

I followed the same pattern for the Mama Owl, but used two strands of worsted weight yarn and a size K hook.
For her beak, I did a smaller variation of the wing: chain 4, then starting in second chain, slip stitch, single crochet, hdc 
Her wings are the same size as the smaller version, just because I ran out of the pink yarn (poor planning... I should have remembered to do the wings first!)