diy owl

It is with great pleasure that I present to you a new realistic crochet owl: Fronsky, the tawny owl!

I had originally planned to create another animal, but this summer I saw my first adult tawny owl and later spotted a second one. Having seen tawny owl chicks this spring, I was eager to see an adult. After some research, I discovered a few roosting spots where owls are regularly seen. Visiting sites like these isn’t usually my thing, but for a chance to see a roosting tawny owl, I had to make an exception. During our first three visits, the owl was not present, which left me disappointed. However, on our fourth visit—a sunny afternoon—the owl was there! What a delightful sight it was! I found it almost magical how that gorgeous creature sat calmly and even looked at us from its perch. I was overjoyed and managed to take a few amazing pictures.

A few weeks later, we travelled to Germany. During a hike, we stumbled upon an old corn mill that showed signs of a roosting owl. There were droppings around, pellets, and feathers stuck to the wall. I checked for the owl but found none. Later that week, we took an evening stroll after a day of rain. As we walked the path to the mill, I wondered if there might be an owl now. When we were almost there, I carefully walked beneath a large chestnut tree and cautiously looked up at the mill. And there it was! A huge gray morph tawny owl perched on a beam—it didn’t even fully open its eyes when I looked at it. This one was much closer than the first one I saw, and I finally realized just how large they are. My holiday was perfect!

When I returned to work, my mind was so full of owls that the only thing I could do was crochet another owl pattern. Since I’ve already made several species of owls, I could easily adapt those patterns into a chubby tawny owl. That sounds easier than it is though, but at least I didn’t have to start from scratch. Real owls vary significantly in size, but I decided to make this one slightly bulkier because I like all my dolls to be about the same size. Choosing the colours for this owl was challenging; however, to keep it simple, I decided to omit the rust colours of the brown morph and instead go for a more greyish morph—like the owl I saw in Germany. This way, it can be made using only three colours, which is more than enough.

An interesting detail: for this owl, I adjusted the feet. Owls have two toes at the front of their feet and two at the back. When I made my other owls, I didn’t know this detail, and I bet many of you might not either.

Here are some more pictures of Fronsky the tawny owl amigurumi. Below them you can find all the information you need about the pattern.

Pattern Details

This is an intermediate pattern made with basic stitches. The difficulty lies in the colour changes; the strands can quickly become tangled, so you need to keep your focus!

This crochet owl is made with Istex Lett Lopi—a 100% wool yarn known for its fuzziness—and stands 5.5 inches (14 cm) tall. The pattern includes clear and colour-coded instructions on how to crochet and assemble the doll, along with instructional images and notes next to the text. You’ll also find pictures of the finished doll at the end. In the pattern, you’ll discover what materials you need as well as the yarn colour numbers—in short, everything necessary to create your own realistic owl amigurumi! All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can purchase it in my shop at Ravelry or Etsy.

And heads up! This pattern has a one-dollar release discount until my birthday on October 6th. Feel free to let me know if you need any additional information!

I’m so excited to present you this pattern! Meet Barnsbie the second, a super-realistic but too-cute-to-be-real crochet barn owl.

When I made my first crochet barn owl pattern, I was rather pleased with its looks. But after I had learned some new techniques while designing the long-eared owls, I didn’t really like old Barnsby anymore. In my eyes he started to look like a silly-looking man.

‘A man?’ Yes, well, whilst I loved the legs when I designed Barnsby, I now really don’t like them any more. All owl species have long legs, you don’t often see them because when they sit on a branch, they are hidden between fluffy feathers. When I designed Barnsby, I wanted to show the legs too. But later I preferred the ‘branching’ look (like bird plushes mostly have too) of just the feet sticking out underneath the belly. And I also wanted to try something different for the face, something more realistic and less ‘big nose’-looking.

So I sat behind my desk and tried all sorts of things. I recently purchased a super-cute but rather silly-looking barn owl plush (I have a thing for plushes), and that was my example. I had to melt for my crochet version, as much as for that wonky-looking plushy.

At some point in the process, I saw my partly-finished new Barnsbie lying in my working basket, and in that moment I knew I had succeeded. I totally loved that look. Especially the face profile looks amazing, and this crochet barn owl has the perfect balance between a realistic and a cute amigurumi.

Here are some more pictures of the little cutie, and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

This is an intermediate pattern. It’s made with basic stitches. If you’re experienced, you can go for the spotted version, but if you don’t like colour changes too much, you can leave out the grey yarn and just go for a two-coloured owl. The difficulty of this pattern lies in the face shaping. I try to explain it as thorough as possible, but it requires some extra skills rather than just crocheting.

This crochet owl is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. It’s 5 inch / 13 cm tall. The pattern contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the doll, with instruction images with notes next to the text and pictures of the finished doll at the bottom. In the pattern you can also find out what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers — in short, everything you need to know to make your own realistic owl amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can purchase it in my shop at Ravelry or Etsy.

And heads up! This pattern has a one dollar release discount till the 16th of May.