Alfonso - a rather talonful owl

A new Knitted One that isn’t a frog

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As usual this pattern by Claire Garland, @dot pebbles. Claire and her patterns can be found on Ravelry, or under dot_pebbles on Instagram. She also has an Etsy shop DotpebblesKnits.

Dear Knitting Cabbage Heads,

I have been trying different patterns by Claire Garland, the same lady who makes the frog patterns. I like to try different stuff and not just make the same thing over and over again, much as it is fun finding out about all their little personalities etc.

I had a good search through my patterns and books and decided to make a barn owl. This pattern can be found in Claire’s book Woodland Knits. It’s a slightly tricky pattern and the making and shaping of the head takes some tenacity to work out.

As usual they look so odd when looking like an unzipped animal pelt. Before they are stuffed and shaped it always seems as though they aren’t going to look like the animal they are meant to be. He wasn’t whispering to me at this point. They often wait until they are stuffed before they decide to reveal who they are.

Once the stuffing goes it it is so much easier to shape. At this point he told me he was called Alfonso. (As a lovely follower said, it could be Owlfonso - I thought it was rather funny and wished I’d thought of it myself.)

Alfonso is larger than the frogs. And I used at least 2 yarns held together, sometimes 3 to make him and his colouring. I used Drops Alpaca and Kid Silk mohair. Size 3.5 mm needles felt large compared to the 2mm I use for the frogs. Even my cardigan is on 3.25mm so this felt a little weird, but it is a lesson in how quickly stuff works up on bigger needles. Alfonso is quite the gentleman and a particularly proud barn owl. He’s proud of his feathers, of his big eyes. Of his neat little beak. He’s very proud of the fact that he doesn’t eat frogs. He will be keeping a beady eye on me today whilst I finish him off. He enjoys watching Vera reruns with me, the wild and open spaces of Northumberland being wonderful for silent swooshing and soaring. Partial to a rich tea biscuit dipped in Yorkshire tea, he is a gentleman with slight attitude.

Wings and feet were next. And now the whole thing really comes alive. We have a full personality. Talons, owls need talons and I only had minute ones. So whilst I tried to source some slightly bigger one Alfonso took himself off for a wander around the house, finding the other house owls. The group ones are made by Rosina Wachtmeister and the bigger ones have bobble heads that make both me and Alfonso laugh. The squat one is an owl I made in first year secondary (year7 - aged 12) school art lessons. Somehow he has survived the many moves and I’m rather fond of him. His name is Owl. I think he embodies that 1970s vibe of the era he was made in.

Another day passed and the new talons didn’t arrive so Alfonso took it upon himself to educate himself via literature. Having heard good things about the wonderful Bill Bailey (comedian,, musician, twitcher, very intelligent man, and winner of Strictly) he hoiked his book from the shelves and gave it a decent peruse. He was a little mortified to find out that he was meant to eat mice etc. having made friends with a new Knitted One that was on the needles and was a mouse. He read her Owl Babies to help calm her down.

Finally the talons arrived and boy, they were fearsome. I’m not sure if they will stay or not. They seem too aggressive for Alfonso’s gentlemanly personality. However, he’s trying them out for size, and even the mouse (named Josie) has overcome her initial innate fear of them.

I think I might try, if I get the energy to either shorten these, make my own, or try with the very small ones I do have. If I do that I will update of here and on Notes. In the meantime Alfonso is happy reading to all the Knitted Ones and completing a daily crossword and Sudoku, where he often puts me to shame with the amount of knowledge and understanding he has garnered in his short time on this planet already.

UPDATE: I have indeed given Alfonso a pedicure. He is a lot less scary now.

Alfonso is available for adoption either with talons, without, or with much smaller ones. Just message me.

So that’s all folks. Till next time, Tx

☕️ buy me a new set of owl talons here ☕️

Froglets🐸, other animals🐇🦊🦡🐭🐘🦏🦎🦥🦧etc, and other miniatures are (or will be) available from me on here (message me). You can also find them at My Website. They are considered collectibles, are unsuitable for under 14s due to the wires , are not CE/UKCA tested (collectibles do not need to be), and are therefore priced as such. Also contact me here if you fancy something you see or don’t see, I’m always open to suggestions. I do have ME/CFS and making and photographing them etc all takes a lot of energy and is a very slow process. I do knit to order too, but be aware a froglet with a jumper takes up to a week for me to make on average. The smaller they are the longer they take as they are more intricate and fiddly. Thank you muchly.

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