The Owlbear Snuggle Beast
Worlds Collide
I’m pretty new to actually playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). During my last D&D session, my adventuring party was given a slightly magical Owlbear Snuggle Beast by an NPC (non-player character). When the DM (Dungeon Master) put up a (picture of a) vinyl figurine of the Owlbear, I nearly hyperventilated from squeeing so hard. That was when I decided I NEEDED to translate this super cuteness to a crocheted amigurumi.
I started with a search for patterns that already existed. None of them were exactly what I wanted, I already had a vision in my head. There are a TON of cute sewing patterns, BTW. So I drew a sketch of what I wanted to make.
Use Resources Wisely
I frequently use inspiration from many sources. So while my design was inspired by a D&D session, the materials used were inspired by the Girl Scouts. “What?? That seems a little incongruent”, you say. One of the tenants of the “Girl Scout Law” is to use resources wisely. For this project, it means using materials on hand: stash yarn, using up scraps of yarn, AND using up scraps of fabric for stuffing.
Yeah. This lil gal is STUFFED FULL of fabric scraps. I’ve been making masks for our local Blessings in a Backpack. Which means TONS of fabric scraps. I have a habit of saving little squares and strips of fabric. For what, I don’t know. Maybe just to save the fabric from going directly to a landfill. I didn’t have enough from my recent mask making endeavors, but with my stashed scraps, I had JUST enough to stuff my amigurumi! Using fabric instead of fiber fill means two things: no worries about the fiberfill shedding out of the holes (because I used a G hook which is still pretty big for amigurumi) and its REALLY weighty. She weighs in at 1 pound 9.6 ounces. Practically a door stop!
Let’s backtrack to the yarn.
I used handspun Llama from Lone Oak Llamas (sorry, I can’t find a website to link). This yarn was gifted to me by my spouse for Xmas 3-5 years ago. Its from a Llama named Apache. I used almost all 4 oz, or about 200 yards for the body, feet, tail, and ears. Llama is not renowned for its soft hand, it is a bit rustic and scratchy. Even after a post crochet bath, its still not something you would want to cuddle up with. The wings are crocodile stitch with Mirasol Yarn’s Hacho. I have one skein of this I purchased 8 or 9 years ago. I still have most of the skein left. This yarn was nice to work with, its really PLUMP! This yarn seems to be discontinued; not matter am already planning on adding it into a hat in the near future. The face is a random dye on some random yarn by me from 2008/2009. I think its a sport weight. No idea regarding the base, since it took dye its obviously a wool/blend. Face features are out of scraps of previous projects. The eyes are from my Deep Winter Cowl and the beak is from my Faire Stripes Sweater.
Construction
I made 4 feet (with the back 2 larger than the front), a folded circle for the tail, 2 incomplete rounds for ears (only did 3/4 of the 3rd row), rounds for eyes, a folded shell for a beak, a face that started round and the final round with DC instead of SC at the top and some added triangles at the bottom, the body is somewhat turnip shaped, and crocodile stitch “wings”. Then I just attached all the pieces by eyeballing the placement. Its a bit wonky, but that just adds to the charm!
I have no intention on writing this into a pattern, I honestly don’t think there would be any interest. It was a fun and satisfying challenge: taking a project type I’m not overly familiar with (amigurumi) and creating a finished project that almost completely aligns with my vision, and finishing it in less than 2 weeks. My next game is this Tuesday, so I finished with time to spare, WINNING!!!
Miscellaneous Design Studio 