August challenge – little octopi

My August challenge has been on my ‘to do’ list for nearly a year, when you may remember I had my first attempts at making a crochet octopus (here and here):

I loved these octopi, but the pattern was hugely time consuming with eight very long tentacles, and turned out not to be very reproducible in my hands, with huge variations in size and shape between octopi. So I told myself that I would find another pattern and try again…

This pattern is adapted from one at crochet for babies here, and has a pleasing symmetry to it, so the counting doesn’t get too arduous. I made the tentacles using a chain of 30, which is not only quicker, but also safer for small babies as it is too short to wrap round their necks apparently. Anyway as you can see I have made quite a few of these now, and I am pleased to say that they are swimming off the shelves as fast as I can make them!

Each octopus took 15g of dk cotton, and I used a 4mm hook. The original pattern is in US terms so if anyone would like a UK translation leave a message and I will post one.