Friday 13 April 2012

FO Friday- Eight is a lot of legs

This week I have my very first craft fair. It is both exciting and a little scary. In all honesty I am not expecting much as it is a generic craft fair rather than a fibre festival, but it should be a good experience.

I decided I needed some moral support and a project to show off some of my hand dyed yarn.


I am not sure why he is on the grass, should be in the sea really but I don't have one of those.

Pattern: Common octopus by Hansi Singh from amigurumi knits
             40cm of 7st garter stitch for the scarf on needles made from kebab skewers and beads.
Yarn: Hand dyed aran for the body, undyed aran for the underside, handspun handyed superwash wool for the scarf.
Needles: 3.5mm circular

I borrowed the idea of having him knit from the knitting squid blog (hope that is ok Erin), it seemed appropriate and hopefully will inspire people and encourage them to buy.

The pattern is quite easy to follow, there are a lot of steps though. I didn't find any errors with this one and no parts where I got totally lost (I had that with some of the other patterns). It is great for practising short rows, I am sure I have been getting them wrong so my sock heels might be neater in the future.

The pattern is somewhat fiddly but the end result is worth it. I knit the first leg, thought that was nice and simple but by the time I had sewn it up and made six more I was bored of legs. It certainly reminded me why I don't tend to make patterns more than once.

The only alteration I made was to not cast off the neck or head, instead I balanced them on top of each other and kitchenered the live stitches together. Again, fiddly but it made a nice join, almost certainly neater than I would have managed following the pattern. This did mean I had to work the underside last, which may have added to the awkwardness.

Picking up for the underside was maybe the trickiest part. I took two stitches from each leg and three from the gap between them to avoid holes. On the first round I worked the gap stitches through the back leg to twist them and further reduce holes.

6 comments:

  1. He's adorable! I made Hansi's tree frog and now I'm an expert on short rows :) They're awesome patterns, aren't they?

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  2. He is rock star!
    Wishing you a great craft fair.

    Your yarn looks fabulous.

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  3. He will be a great conversation starter for your booth - what a fun way to show off your yarn, too!

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  4. Your octopus is adorable! the fact that he's knitting makes him even greater. Good luck at the fair. Have a great week.

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