For this Iron Craft challenge we were to be inspired by the letter “B”. My first thought was to go with beads, but they just wasn’t inspiring me. Then I thought of the beach and an idea for a knit octopus I had, “why not knit up things you would see at the beach.”

First I knit up the bright pink starfish. It was a bit of a design challenge for me because I wanted to see if I could knit up a stuffed star seamlessly. Then I did the little octopus. He is such a cute little guy and only took and afternoon.

Today, I’ll share the octopus pattern and the starfish pattern will come separately later in the week.

Mini Knit Octopus

My octopus is mini, just 1 1/4″ tall and 2″ wide, but you can make him bigger by using thicker yarn or using more stitches. For instance you could make the body by casting on 30 stitches and knitting 30 rows, then cast on 15 stitches for the legs.

Download a pdf of the Mini Knit Octopus Pattern

Supplies:

• worsted weight yarn
• four size 5 double-pointed needles
• two size 2 needles
• stitch marker
• tapestry needle
• stuffing
• beads, small buttons or embroidery floss to make eyes

Gauge: Gauge is not important for this project, you just want to make sure that it is tight enough that the stuffing doesn’t show through.

Abbreviations:

• k- knit
• p – purl
• kfb – knit into the same stitch through the front and then the back

Body:

With larger needles, cast on 18 stitches. Divide between three needles. Join together to knit in the round. Place a stitch marker between the first and last stitch to mark rows.

Row 1 – 16: (k1, p1)9x

Leave on the needles.

Put your cast on tail on a tapestry needle. Weave through cast on stitches and pull tight to close. Weave in the end.

Stuff the body tightly forming into a ball.

Cut the working yarn leaving a 6-inch tail. Put on a tapestry needle, weave through the stitches on the needles. Take out the needle and pull the stitches tight to close. Weave in the end.

Legs (make 8):

With smaller needles, cast on 8 stitches loosely.

Row 1: kfb then k1 into every stitch, making 3 stitches for each one. (24 stitches)
Row 2: bind off

Cut working yarn leaving a 6 – 10-inch tail.

Weave in cast on tail. I wet my legs down to stretch them a bit and make them just slightly less curly, that is a design choice.

Finishing:

Using the bind off tails, sew the tails around the bottom of the body. (You can choose which end is the bottom.)

Sew, glue or embroider on eyes.

Copyright 2014 Kathy Lewinski JustCrafyEnough.com
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