Beginner-Friendly Knitted Baby Owl Amigurumi

This was the first knitting project I ever did on my own (after the famous potholder and scarf of course ;)). It comes together so fast and is absolutely adorable!! The owl is super easy to adapt to whatever yarn you have on hand, just adjust your needle size accordingly (aka thicker yarn=thicker needles).

The photos are going to be very helpful to follow for someone who has never knitted before so make sure to look through all of them.

• Small ball of white, tan, or speckled yarn (not sure how thick mine was but around 3/4 the thickness of my needles)

• Tan, yellow, and black or grey felt

• A bit of stuffing

• Knitting needles (I used size 6)

• Sewing needle

• White, yellow, and black thread

• Small piece of yellow embroidery floss (or just use thread)

• Scissors

• Optional small crochet hook

This first step is really simple. Basically you're just going to take your yarn and tie 1/2 of a knot, just like when you tie your shoelaces. Before you pull the knot tight though, stick your needle in the loop. Then you can pull the loop tight around the needle.

For people who have never knitted before, this is how you cast on:

1. Hold the needle in your right hand and the yarn with the thumb and pointer finger of your left like in the image.

2. The yarn should look like a river going down a waterfall. Stick the needle behind the waterfall from the left side and pull the yarn off of your finger.

3. Then pull the loop tight and you have cast on your first real stitch! Repeat that four more times so that you have 6 loops total on your needle. (One will be the first stitch that you just knotted.)

If this was confusing to you and you would like another explanation, check out this other Instructable I found and follow the directions for a "single cast on".

The stitches on the needle right now are going to make up the owl's body.

Hold the needle with the yarn in your left hand and with your right hand, stick the empty needle through the bottom of the first loop and behind the needle in your left.

Pull the yarn counter-clockwise over the needle in your right hand.

Then pull the right needle away from the back side of the left needle to place it on the front side. Make sure to keep the new (counterclockwise) loop you made wrapped around the right needle.

Pull the top stitch on the left needle off and you should be left with only 5 loops on the left side and one loop on the right side.

Referring to the pictures will be helpful if you've never done this before :)

Repeat this process with all of the stitches on the left needle, including the knot, until they're all on the right needle.

For the next row, we'll be increasing the number of stitches. This is very similar to the regular stitches which we just learned but slightly different for the first and last stitches in the row.

Follow the same instructions as the last step but before you pull the loop off the needle, stick the right needle back behind the left one. Then do the same steps one more time (counterclockwise loop, pull loop to front) and pull off both stitches. Now you should have 5 stitches on the left side and 2 on the right; one more than before you did this!

Knit the next 4 as usual but use the increasing instructions again on the last stich. At the end, you should have 8 stitches total.

Alternate a row that increases by 2 and a regular, non-increasing row until you finish your second row of 16 (the regular row).

Then, increase to 18 stitches and knit 9 regular rows total.

Once you've finished, we're going to start decreasing the rows so we'll be left with a nice roundish shape.

To decrease, stick your needle into two loops at once and continue as if you had only stuck it into one loop. Do this for the first two and the last two loops so that each decreasing row gets smaller by 2.

Decrease the stitches to 16, then do one regular row (2 total). The decrease to 14 and do a regular row (2 total). Decrease to 12 and knit 2 regular rows (3 total). And finally, decrease to 10 (1 total).

Unfortunately, I realized that I forgot to take photos of casting off. Luckily, it's very easy to understand.

Just knit two stitches regularly and once they're on the right needle pull the bottom loop up over the top loop so you're only left with one stitch. Knit another stitch as usual and do the same thing.

Repeat until all of the stitches on the left are gone and you're left with one stitch on the right. Then cut the yarn and stick the tail through the last remaining loop.

Then repeat the instructions for the body one more time so you are left with two different pieces.

Here's another Instructable by the same person who did the casting on if you would like to see photos.

Cast on 6 stitches. Knit 3 rows. Decrease to 4 stitches and knit 1 more row (2 total). Finally, decrease to 2 stitches and knit 2 more rows (3 total).

Then cast off and repeat so you have 2 itty bitty triangles.

Freehand a wing shape that's around 2 in. long and an eye that's 3/4-1 in. wide on the tan felt. Cut those out and trace them so you can cut out another pair.

Draw and cut 1 1/2 in. long and wide feet and a 1 in. long beak.

Finally, do the same for the 1/2 in. pupils on black or grey felt.

Place your wings between the two body pieces and sew them with a thread and needle shut. Make sure to leave a gap at the bottom for the stuffing!

Try and stay as close to the edge as you can or better yet only push the thread through the outermost loops of yarn.

You can stick the yarn tail at the bottom of the owl into the hole with the stuffing so it doesn't show.

This is a special trick my mom taught me. For the tail on the top, stick your crochet needle through one of the knitted loops and pull the yarn through and back out again. Keep doing this down the side of the owl until the yarn no longer shows.

It's okay to cut the yarn so it's not really long but don't make it too short otherwise the knitting could come undone.

Do this for the ears too while you're at it so they don't have any tails.

Using the same thread and needle, sew the ears onto the top of the owl at a slight diagonal.

Sew the eyes on with the white and black thread and then use embroidery thread for the beak. Just fold the felt for the beak in half and make one stitch across the center.

Use some yellow thread to attach the feet to the bottom of the owl.

That's it! You're baby owl is done. Go make a whole family and show them off to all your friends!!