Owls, Part 1

Two or three weeks ago I got a request from a colleague of Jeff’s to make a coffee cosy. The original request involved a suggestion of pink and purple, but as the day wore on it became apparent that she really wanted animal face of some sort. And then it transpired that she was a Rice graduate. So the face was decided.

Specifically, I was going to come up with a Rice Owl coffee cup cosy. In blue.

Feeling (a) in need of a challenge and (b) up to a challenge, I set off to design my own coffee cup cosy. Along the way, I also designed a matching amigurumi, also an owl in Rice colors. In Part 2 I will unveil my tiny little owl and the pattern for said owl, but in the meantime, let me introduce you to the OWL COFFEE CUP COSY.

This owl would like you to have a lovely cup of coffee. He is snug on a cup, and plenty insulating, and features blanket stitching on top and bottom for decoration.  He has an eye patch and yellow eyes. The eyes are made from yellow felt circles and flat sew-on button eyes.  The nose is a crocheted triangle.

You may see an owl in the background? Designing that owl has been … interesting. Let me introduce you to the mistakes preliminary designs of the owl before I introduce you (in a couple days) to the final owl. First, there was a slightly more … oddly hexagonal body shape.  It was not practical. Then there were wings that were nicely shaped, but impossible to reproduce and way too long for the body. They couldn’t stay, but I might use them elsewhere.

I kind of liked the other eye patch pattern that I made. It has “eyelashes.” I think with the right project these could be really cute with something.

Once my brain can figure out how to complete the final bits of the owl pattern, I will happily post it for a free download, in case anyone likes my rendition of the owl and would like to reproduce it!  It’s always a lovely challenge and a welcome change to make a pattern once in a while instead of just following a design. Wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but sometimes …

My other reason for making this pattern was not being happy with any of the owl patterns I saw. Didn’t like the wings, or the eyes, or the shape exactly. So I made my own. The final one isn’t quite like this fat little guy in this picture (he was version 2), but it’s pretty close.

The owls (and I) say sionara for the evening and we’ll be back soon.