Ever had a great idea that just kept going wrong ?
Yeap welcome to world that was my Octopus...
It started out how any normal make start, Research! I had previously used an octopus pattern to create a cute Octopus Keyring, however i really wanted to use flutterby for this keyring. It would be nice and soft that way perfect for a child's bag etc.
So I find several pattern online, some I liked, some I loved and some I hated, but none of them really had the look I wanted, and unless I wanted some frankenstein octopus I knew I was just going to have to test this out myself and write my own pattern.
So first I played with the size, do I stop at 12 st or maybe 18. maybe 24 or 30. I kept increasing as normal till I thought it was to big. Originally this was 18 but upon making the dome shape I just felt it was to small so I upped it to 24. Then it was how long to make it. 1 row 2 rows. I found that I liked 5/ 6 rows but the problem then came at the tentacles when I added these it was to long, and didn't look like
an octopus so much. After more research I learnt the best was was to do a Decrease row this allowed the tentacles to almost flare out. But I was still hit with the problem of to long. Through much playing and undoing I found the best was to do less rows but add the decrease and then a SC before the tentacles to achieve the look I wanted. Then it come to making tentacles. how long do you make them how many increases ( You increase each chain to create the swirl) after a lot of chains I found the perfect length, only problem was how was I going to close up the base ? I could make a separate base and sew it on, but I really wanted a no sew version. So i knew that meant i had to FLO (Front loop only) and BLO (Back loop only) which was and worked out in the end it just took a while of flapping and working the hook out to make it a no sew, no join pattern.
After I done that I had to spend hours writing it up, photographing it and finally asking for people to recreate the design to see if it was pattern worthy. After their feedback and even more editing I finally had a saleable pattern... which means I could go back to the original reason for finding an Octopus pattern.. to make an octopus keyring.
After finally having the pattern down i redone my design with my intended yarn and Bang my octopus was born, Problem he was to big for a keyring. The change in yarn had changed the size so instead he was to become a small soft toy...
You saw the was right.. Yeap upon testing my octopus he legs snapped right off, and while I could continue to sell this item with a warning. It just wasn't worth the risk. So my octopus has been placed on pause while I rethink my yarn choice and retest but there will be an octopus toy at some point.
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