After persevering with the knitting of the chenille blanket, I wanted to reward myself with a fun kit. And I still needed something for the Toy category for the fair.

Last year, my  Nessie only netted me a fourth place ribbon, so I’m hoping this year, the judges will really be wowed by a bright pink Octopus!

Long-time blog readers will know this is one of my favourite toy patterns. In fact, this is the sixth one I’ve made.

Half the fun of these is pairing the yarn, so this time around, I used some single-ply hand-dyed Malabrigo I had kicking around in my stash, and paired with with the leftover Classic Wool from some Christmas Nessie’s I made.

The pattern looks exceedingly complicated, but I assure you, it’s much easier than you’d think. Just a few short rows, and clever increases and decreases, and it comes together like magic. It is a little fiddly to bring all those tentacles together, but it’s so worth it.

And the secret to those fantastic tentacles? Pipe cleaners. The simple insertion before sewing up makes this little octopus magically poseable, and just brings it that extra bit of realism!

I think that’s worth a first place ribbon!