Naughty nautical nautilus

Just a silly post with a funny title. I’m moving soon, the centre where I live has been deemed unsafe so we’re all moving out. I’m trying to use up odds and sods of yarn that are left over, and entire balls that were bought for small projects. I also want rid of all of my stuffing. They will think it’s weird, and they’re already saying I have too many things, so I’m looking to get rid of that. That’s where this came in. Odds and sods of yarn with more stuffing.

I’d had the patterned queued for quite a while and I was looking for something fun to make.

A weird sea creature.

So this is it. A nautilus, a strange creature that’s been around since the time of the dinosaurs pretty much in its current form. They’re in the same family as octopuses, which is funny. And they have a shell. Most people know of ammonites, which are also in the same family.

The pattern is free on Knitty, you can find more info here, it’s a bit weird to begin with, but once you’ve started turning the shell it’s very simple to continue. I cast on one morning and just went for it. Everyone was confused about what it was and it only took me two week days with classes to finish it. It’s a very quick project.

Propped up just after being finished.

I’m not sure how many facial tentacles I did, it said to do 8 but I just kept going until it looked right. People keep thinking it’s a snail though, which is weird.

It’s a hat for my beer!

Both pieces look weird when knitting up, the face worse than the shell I think. Although it’s a great stash buster using minimal amounts of yarn. You can find my full notes here from Ravelry.

I have two more stash busters on the needles too, and I think I’ve not got enough stuffing! It’s almost gone!

Free Knitted Octopus Pattern

My first knitted octopus. He turned out really nicely.

I wanted to do something with some odd wool, I wanted to make a toy for Sandy. I was looking for something small so he could hold it, and something quick so I could finish it. This is the end result. Since then I’ve made four, but two of them don’t have limbs because he was enjoying using them as balls.

They took me around a day to knit each one, but this was knitting while my son was sleeping so they can be done much quicker. I’d guess around four to eight hours.

The wool I used was Phildar Charly, which is 100% acrylic. It comes in 50g balls and it’s really nice and soft, it doesn’t seem to get fluffy either.

The pattern was very simple to follow, all knitted flat in garter stitch and then sewn up. It seems great for beginners because it’s small, quick and easy. Even sewing it up is fully explained. I tweaked it slightly by not using the cardboard stiffener and skipping stuffing the legs. You could also put a big bell inside wrapped in the stuffing to make a little baby rattle.

I did make one of the hats, but it got lost and for a baby it’s not really needed. Although they are so cute. These would have been an awesome stocking filler for christmas too. And even better there’s actually a boy octopus and a girl octopus in the pattern, or a unisex one if you don’t knit the accessories.

So that’s enough of my rambling, you can find the online pattern by Jean Greenhowe here. You can either print it, or work off of the screen like I did.

I’m happy to read your comments and answer any questions you have too. Thanks for reading and happy knitting.

Three little octopi(?) sitting on a chair. I’ve lost the forth one and I don’t know where.