Kitschy Cute Octopus

My version of the old curly-legged octopus. No seams here, because that's how I like it.

(Updated with some changes and more pictures, to make it easier.)

Read on, or download the pdf (if for some reason the pdf doesn't work, please email me and I'll get that pdf right to your email (see below for my addy, or, from the download page, click "share" and it should send me an email letting me know you'd like a copy))

Worsted Yarn (or whatever you have - just adjust your hook size to match)
Crochet Hook size E (if you have trouble, just go up a size)
Pair of 9mm Safety Eyes
Stuffing

abbreviations used: sc=single crochet, hdc=half double crochet, inc=increase, dec=decrease, ch=chain, sk=skip (US terms)

Important Note: sc2=sc in next 2 stitches, sc5=sc in next 5 stitches, etc. These are not meant as increases.

(worked in the round, no joining)

Rnd 1: 8 sc in magic ring
Rnd 2: inc around (16)
Rnd 3: *sc, inc* around (24)
Rnd 4: *sc, inc, sc* around (32)
Rnd 5: *sc3, inc* around (40)
Rnd 6: *sc2, inc, sc2* around (48)
Rnd 7: *sc5, inc* around (56), place marker in last stitch
Rnds 8-17: work 10 rounds even in sc
Rnd 18: *sc5, dec* around (48)
Rnd 19: *sc2, dec, sc2* around (40)

Now we make the legs! (chain very loosely to make it easier to do the hdc's)

Rnd 20: *ch20, work 5hdc in second chain from hook and each following chain, sk 2, sc3* repeat (you will have 8 legs)

Note: when you do the hdc's in the chains, it will probably curl up all ruffled and odd like so:

 just twirl it clockwise, and you'll get a nice little corkscrew

promise.

Insert Safety Eyes between Rnd 13 & 14, leaving 5-6 stitches between eyes.

Rnd 21: holding legs in front, and working behind, *sc2 in the sk stitches, sc3* repeat (40)

Rnd 22: *sc3, dec* around (32)

Rnd 23: *sc, dec, sc* around (24)

Pause to Stuff

Rnd 24: *sc, dec* around (16)
Rnd 25: dec around (8)

Stuff a little more if needed

Rnd 26: dec around (4)

Cut yarn, leaving about 8". Do a nice finish, and run the yarn up to the center top. Stitch to secure, then hide yarn end within body.

(I have worked through this a couple times, but I know it's easy to be blind to your own errors. Please comment or email me if you have questions, or if something seems off in the directions.)

Pattern was inspired by several other Octopus patterns, but in the end, is my own creation. Please respect my rights as pattern writer by giving me credit and providing a link back to me if you use this pattern.

Want one, but you don't crochet? Contact me: booketteATliveDOTcom, and I can make one for you, you choose the color.

(Coming Soon: alternate directions for tiny octopus made in pearl cotton and size 6 steel hook!)

Yarn: Vanna in Bluebell

Dracula

Loved this.

Friday is sold out, not many tickets left for the Saturday performances.
Better get you some while you can.

skully stitch markers

I thought I'd do a little something for my Fab Fibers group for Halloween, because I love Halloween, and when I found I had lots and lots of these skull "beads", I figured they'd be perfect for making festive stitch markers.

I like how they turned out. Just the right amount of spooky.

I've got to make a few more, but I ran out of the head pins. There were only a few of us last night anyway, but the other gals will get theirs next time.

Wish I could find a split ring a little bigger than these. The one I used will fit up to a size 9 needle. I often work with 10 1/2's or larger. I found some that were about 3/4" diameter, but that's kinda big. I want something in between. They had jump rings in all the sizes, just not split rings.

(skull beads from Oriental Trading)

Little Acorn

Sweet little thing, I think.

Pattern is good. I didn't even mind sewing it together.

I elected to make a little stem instead of a hanging loop. I pulled the yarn through, twisted it until I thought it couldn't take it anymore, and then let it fold back on itself as I ran the yarn back to the inside. I fussed with the twist a bit until I liked it, then secured the other end inside the cap.

Yarns: Patons Classic Wool in Winter White and Sesame

Life is just a....

...chair of snowy pumpkins?

Worth coming back to

Recently made a batch of my White Chocolate Caramel Apples & Pears, so I've added more pics to my earlier recipe post.

You've really got to try the pears.

Heaven.

 For full recipe and instructions, go here.

Time for Spooks (Sporks?)

It's been a weird month for me. For some reason, I've found myself with only odd pockets of free time, nothing quite long enough to even get all the boxes of Halloween decor from the attic. Pretty sure I have about as many boxes of Halloween as I do Christmas. Maybe even more.

Friday night, I finally just had to do it. I mean, the month is just about over, so really, I had no choice.

I got up in there, and handed box after box of Halloween goodies down to Twin1 (my usual attic helper). I've gotten through most of them.

Looks like I can wear a Halloween T every day for the rest of the month with no repeats.

Is that wrong?

I only have 3 pairs of Halloween socks, though, so maybe that evens things out.

(look: orange pants!)

We're doing the front yard in spiders.

Just spiders.

Some of them are just too oogie to look at. I realize I bought these things, but I still had a hard time putting some of them up. Those blue and black furry ones out on the arbor are just...well, I had to take a break after that. So if those ones get ruined in the rain? I won't be heartbroken. I may need someone else to throw them out for me, but I think I'll be fine with letting them go.

(Ghost Boy will have to stay shut away in his locker this year.)

Inside, I'm going for an old-fashioned, b&w, classic sort of look.

(Is that winged zebra looking at me? I think it's looking at me.

It's kinda creepy.)

The super-colorful stuff will have to go back in the attic.

Been thinning out stuff I just don't seem to like anymore, so I'll have a box of Halloween decor going spare. It's cute stuff, but I've just got so much, something has to go.

I have a hard time letting stuff go, especially if I made it, or the kids made it. Keep the stuff the Twins made, absolutely.

That little pumpkin I crocheted back in early College?

Not so attached.

Now, that bat wreath, that's just so cute, still.

Or at least, the bat is. The main wreath fabric is so...80's. Maybe that'll have to get re-made. I think I'd like it again if it was black & white polka dots. If I can just find time to...no, never mind. It'll have to wait for next year.

Mighty Cheetos

Have you tried the new Cheetos? The ones they're calling Mighty Zingers?

They're like the crunchy Cheetos, only in little pieces, like popcorn, but smaller. My bag has Crazy Cheddar (I'm not sure how it's different from the usual), and Wicked Picante.

For some reason, I can't quite get enough of these. I'm on my third bag in as many weeks, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.

I got mine at Days, and they're even on sale right now, 3 for $5. And look, no gluten ingredients!

'scuse me...must get florescent orange and wicked green Cheeto dust off my computer keys now.

Year of Ami, week 40, N is for Nut!

Remember how hard it was to find anything last time around? Yeah.

Not so difficult this time, and the little nip of fall in the air helped to solidify my decision.

To knit, Acorn Pattern from It's a Wonderful Life.

To crochet (sort of), Adorable Acorn Accents from Lion Brand. (Signing up on LB is free.)

I did find something else, something not so tiny, but we just don't have a need for Ninja accessories at my house right now, knit, crochet, or otherwise. If you find these suit your needs better, by all means, get your craft on Ninja style. But, if you make them for children, consider using something softer than a dowel. Perhaps one of those huge straws that go with the 44oz drinks at the convenience stores? Just a thought.

*pics of my own creations added after-the-fact*

Sock Progress

No longer odd, these socks are starting to shape up nicely. I've just started the gussets. (For you non-knitters, or just non-sock knitters, that's just before you do the heel, which means, despite ripping these all the way back and totally starting over, I'm almost done with the feet.)

I tried one other eyelet pattern, but didn't like it much. So I re-knitted just those sections. I was NOT going to rip both sock back that many rows, again, just for a small section of 6 stitches either side. I figured if I started the new eyelet just above that point, it'd be fine, since I probably should have made sure I had gotten past all my toes before deliberately putting holes in my socks.

I think I'll call these Weekend Blues. I'm scribbling notes keeping track in my head, and maybe I'll even write up the pattern when I'm done.

Worth starting them over? I think so.

cjane is bad for my wallet

When cjane posted about the Dollhouse Festival (which I used to attend, but hadn't in years), I had to go see that dolls tree house in person. They have a little craft fair, as well as bidding on the donated dollhouses, so I expected I might spend a little. I spent a little more than I thought. Because I bought this vintage 50's dollhouse, compete with furniture and a doll family.

See, we were there when they closed the bidding, and nobody had bid on it. If nobody bid on it, you could just buy it for the minimum bid price, if you were there and could snatch it up before anyone else did. Minimum bids were around $60-$70 for most of them. Some brought in a real good price, too.

I'm not having buyers remorse over this, it's just more than I expected to spend that day. Isn't it cute, though?
(Note: my furniture is different than that shown here. I haven't had time to set it up again, so if I'd taken a picture of mine, it'd be empty - but it's this same house. Photo from here. I really really really want that patio furniture, though. Mine had a set of nursery furniture instead.)

(we're not going to talk about the 2 tubes of lipstick I bought a few months ago, on her recommendation - 2 separate shopping trips, accidentally buying the same color both times)

Instead, let me share with you the other, more recent purchase, much more affordable than the doll house.

I bought tickets to Mortal Fools Dracula at the Castle. I thought for sure my Twins would tell me no thanks, but they both wanted to go, and could I please buy another ticket so Twin2 could bring his girlfriend? Yes, I could. Apparently, last years production of Frankenstein was awesome. This years production looks like it'll at least live up to that. You should come.

5 minutes to spooky

Just found this nifty spooky book cover printable thru Ucreate.

Printed it out, assembled it, and slapped it on a book.

Five minutes.

I love a good, quick, crafty experience.

(Fits a standard LDS hymn book, if you want to know.)

Odd Socks

Recently, Roberts was having 40% off all their yarn, so I bought up all the colors of sock yarn I'd been drooling over lately. Mostly, I've just been staring at them, trying to think what pattern to use.
Last weekend, I started a pair. Just plain so far, I think I'll add in ribbing after the heel. Maybe.

Despite being, according to the labels, the same dye lot, and despite my attempt to start them in the same colors, I've gotten this far, with no resemblance, and no repeat (yet) to the stripes.

Except...wait, do you see it? Right up by the needles, the sock on the left? Just above that bright white? That sort of looks like the same sequence as we have on the toe of the sock on the right.

I'd have to totally restart that one on the left; restart it all the way back at the toe, with the yarn just past where you see that bright white. That's almost 4" of sock. Which is kind of a lot. But then they would match. Most likely.

I think I still like the yarn enough to do that. Maybe.

Or maybe I'll start another pair, in another yarn.

Fun Mail

Remember when getting mail was a good thing?
Used to be, if you got mail, it was generally something personal. Then came utilities, and a mortgage, and credit cards, and your mail was all kinds of bills. Then the advertisers came up with junk mail, and now your mailbox contents (snail or otherwise) consist largely of stuff you never asked for, probably don't want, and definitely don't need. (At our house, we use that stuff to keep recyclers in business. It goes directly from the mailbox to the recycle bin, with hardly a glance.)

But still, every once in a while, something personal, maybe even something unexpected, shows up.

Yesterday, I got both.

First, I'd almost forgotten I'd placed an order, but there it was, a box from Knit Picks,

with 2 skeins of sock yarn in a limited edition colorway called Time Traveler (can you guess why?), a darning egg (I have a sock in need, but was sure I'd manage to mess it up without the real deal (heard of using a light bulb, had nightmares of crushing it, ending up with a holey sock full of glass shards, just couldn't do it), and surprise, they're not expensive), and, not exactly practical, but really very cute, the little sock-blocker key chain, complete with a pattern to make a sock for it. It was all I could do to not search out my sock remnants and either mend the sock-in-need, or knit up the mini sock for the key chain, possibly both.

I sifted through the rest of the mail, and found something totally unexpected, obviously personal,

 and practically covered in stickers.

Such a bright, cheery little surprise: An invitation to carve pumpkins with my niece and nephews!

It's not every day you get such fun stuff in the mail. I count myself lucky.

And I will so definitely be attending. With such a cute invite, even if those kids weren't already some of my very favorite people, how could I not?

I made a spider clock!

I found this great tutorial for a spooky clock over on Eighteen25, and I just had to have one.

I got the components and face at Roberts, and asked a friend to do the spiderweb vinyl parts for me on her Silhouette. Then, one of my friends said they were thinking of doing a crackle finish on the face, and I thought that sounded like a good idea, too.

I did the crackle stuff, and messed it up good. The bottle of crackle medium says the crackle effect happens when it dries. NOT. It sort of happens right away, and you'll spoil it if you go over it again. Which I did. So I had to start over, paint it black again, let that dry, put on another coat of crackle, let that dry, and then, with a huge foam brush and lots of paint on my pallet, I hurried to put on the white. Notice that you get bigger crackles where the paint is thicker, and smaller crackles where it's a thin coat. Better this time, though still not perfect; I decided it was good enough.

Got me some glitter spiders out at Zurchers. I figured the different colors were fine, and I liked using big spiders for the main 4 numbers, and smaller ones in between. I think I paid about $3 for the package, and I still have more spiders. (I had to look through a couple, make sure they had enough small spiders, so watch for that, if you get the same kind. If you wanted all the spiders to be black, you'd have to buy a couple packages.)

Stuck the spiders on with glue dots (had to use 2 under the little ones, as their legs make their bodies pretty far from the surface), and put the clock parts together with the face.

For placement, I just set my base on a ruled grid, and lined up top and bottom, side to side, for the main 4, then eyeballed it for the smaller ones. You could use paper, cut to match your face, and fold it in half twice, then in thirds, and use the crease lines for placement. I considered doing that. But then I figured, it'll be close enough. Plus, if it didn't work out, it's only glue dots, and I can move them.

Anyway, that's how I did it. Sort of like the one on eighteen25, but kind of not.

Knitted 'Shroom

Isn't it sweet? Even without the eyes, I think this little mushroom is adorable.

Pattern is great, so you shouldn't have any problems making one yourself. I love that I didn't have to sew this one together, too.

I found that my yarn ends (from changing colors twice) were enough to stuff the stem.

I actually did start one of the other set. It's had it's first little wash in hot soapy water, with no colors running, and will get another wash soon. It always takes a couple cycles to get all the lanolin out, and then, BAM, it'll shrink.

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Winter White and Sesame, on size 1 needles

Stamped Metal Jewelry, and a Zombie for you

Did you see that item on my FO list? The one that said something about stamped metal pieces, for samples? We had our Terrific Tuesday last night, so now the samples are ready to be absorbed into my (or someone elses) jewelry collection.

A couple of the pieces are definitely mine, as they have my kids names on them, or my initials, or something personal.

A couple of them are for family, because they have something personal to them stamped on them.

One of them is fairly flawed, but still pretty. (It's hard to spell when you're stamping metal, one letter at a time. Seriously.)
And one of them really tickles me. Someone had mis-stamped a disc, I think with an "L", and they just set it aside. When I was cleaning up in between, I came across it, and, after staring at it for a minute, decided to add a little dot.

So now it's a Zombie.

I love it.

My son did not love it.

If you love it, let me know, and maybe I'll let you have it, no charge.

10 little friends on a camping trip, with skates

Have I mentioned my relationship with Netflix before?
Yes?
It's still going strong.

Recent rentals included All About Steve, and Whip It.

All About Steve is an odd one. Mildly inappropriate at times, though not often. And mild truly is the word here.

I find myself wanting to say, several times a day, for no reason, "...like 10 little friends on a camping trip", with her cute little lisp. (Speaking of her lisp, I find myself wondering how she did it. Did she have something in her mouth, or did she just practice a lot? It sounded natural, and I know that's not easy.)

I seriously like the message: Find someone as normal as you are, and if not, a whole bunch of them. Yeah, that's good advice.

Whip It....hmmm....how to describe it? Lots of good people in this one. And I find myself really really really wanting to put on a pair of skates. And not those in-line things, either. I wonder where those old blue tennis-shoe-style skates of mine are? The ones we got at the Swap Meet in Hawaii, back in the 80's? They may not be pretty, but they'd fit, and that's all you need for practice, right? I mean, if Babe Ruthless can wear Barbie skates...

Do they have Roller Derby in Utah?

'Shroom in Teal

I know I said something about red for my 'shrooms, but I was working on another project, using this great sort of 60's aqua color, and all of a sudden, I didn't want red, or even chartreuse (which we know I adore), I had to use the teal.

I don't think this one even took an hour. It was just that easy.

May I suggest stuffing it a few rounds before you get to the end? And then add a little more just before you do that last decrease round. The tiny hole left by 6 sc in the round is hard to work through.

Before I put the spots on, I couldn't make him sit flat. So when I got the yarn ready to do my french knots, I first ran it through a couple stitches on the bottom in the center, and then pulled those up to sort of dimple it. Now it can stand up on it's own, and I didn't even have to use any plastic pellets or hardware to add weight.

Yarns: Patons Classic Wool in Aquarium & Winter White, size E hook.

Pretty Flowers

Next month, in RS, I'll be teaching a little class on flower arranging. So for this month, I thought, why not practice my skills by making centerpieces for our tables.
The idea is to take an ordinary bunch of flowers from the grocery store, and make that into a nice centerpiece.

We used 3 bouquets,

And we got 5 flower arrangements 

The only thing we added here was some trumpet vine leaves from the back yard (second from the right). And a little bit of something mom had dried a few months back (in the tall one).

lunch, international style

Our meal of choice while traveling in Europe. Available at just about any train station, it was cheap and filling, and the brie was always excellent.

Just one of the many things I miss about Europe.

DIY Bliss?

First trip to the plumbing supply store for a water supply tube,

15 minutes, and $2

Time wasted installing supply tube, only to find the leak is not fixed, 45 minutes.

Second trip to the plumbing supply store, a week later, for a Fluid-Master replacement kit (which I was this close to buying during the first visit),

15 minutes, and $9

Finally finding the time to install Fluid-Master, just in time for the sink to start it's annual mystery clog?

 Typical.