Coming soon... #GrandAmiVenture

The project / series I'm calling #GrandAmiVenture started back in 2023. I gave my daughters a little booklet I made up with pictures of some of my best sellers, asking for my granddaughters to come up with color combinations for them. 

I got the pages back at our family Christmas in 2024. My two oldest granddaughters took turns coming up with some fun color combinations! 

So, for 2025, starting in April, I will be making one of their color combinations each month. 

For ease of copying and pasting into a spinning wheel of names, here are the patterns still left to do: 

Cute Little Dino

Big Head Turtle

Mini Tanner the Triceratops

Fancy Elephant

Ankylosaur

African Flower Sea Turtle

Aliyasaurus

Axolotl in Sleeping Bag

Little Bigfoot Puppy

Hatching Party - Big Brother

Chameleon

Fofo the Bull

Ballerina Kitty

(I will eventually get pictures of one I've made already and a pattern link... and pictures of how each girl's color combo worked out.)

Cute Little Dino is a pattern here on my blog. Pattern Link

5-year old Sophie wants me to make one in Pink with yellow accent stripes and green spikes, and red cheeks! 

Big Head Turtle

This is a free pattern on Instagram

8-year-old Aliya picked out the colors for this one: 

Royal Blue for the head, and a multi-colored yarn (pink and white) for the shell. 

Ankylosaur is a free pattern on Ravelry

(The pattern can be found here.)

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too. Forest Green body, yellow shield, light pink bumps! That one is going to be interesting! 

Fancy Elephant: I'll have to track down the pattern info for this one! It's been so long, I don't remember where I put the pattern! 

(Found it! Pattern here )

Aliya's color choices: grey body, light pink dress with forest green for the top ruffle, mint green for the middle, and a pink/green ombre for the bottom... and coral hair bows.

(Definitely not colors I would have thought of... that's why this is going to be so interesting!) 

Axolotl with sleeping bag is a free pattern from Whimsical Yarn Creations

You can find info here

Aliya wants me to make it in dark green with yellow gills and a multi-colored blue sleeping bag. 

Tanner the Mini Triceratops by The Nicole Chase is one of my favorite dinosaur patterns. Here's the pattern 

Aliya said "this will be a silly one"... Green body, blue accents at the bottom of the feet and arms, light pink frill, light purple edge on frill, yellow horns by the frill, white horn on the snout. 

Hatching Party is a paid pattern from One and Two Company

Hatching Party Pattern 

I made baby brother in the egg shell years ago, with a blue "Big Brother". Over the years, I keep making the "Big Brother" over and over again (well, there may have been big sisters in pink and purple)... but nobody has purchased the set yet. 

Sophie thinks the next big brother should be light blue with light purple spikes, and a purple eggshell. 

FoFo the Bull... what a cutie! Here's his pattern

I've made him twice. Following Aliya's instructions, he will be a purple bull, with aqua blue pants (and orange pocket embroidery), dark pink feet, a light pink bow tie, and light brown ears and horns. Oh, and his arms are supposed to be coral. That's going to be one interesting cow! 

Honu the African Flower Sea Turtle is a long-time favorite. Looking through my Ravelry projects, I can tell that I made at least 18 of them so far! Here's the pattern. 

Aliya picked colors for this one: light purple head and flippers, yellow in the center, royal blue petals, dark purple to separate the petals, and light blue to finish off. 

The Aliyasaurus is my own pattern, designed from a drawing done by my granddaughter Aliya. 

Of course, she picked the colors for the next one. 

Head: a very colorful ombre, green neck, yellow body, orange tail, teal legs, dark purple spikes and dark pink ears.

Little Bigfoot Puppy is a pattern by Sharon Ojala

Aliya picked out the colors for this one, too: Turquoise head, light pink body, turquoise muzzle, blue and pink arms, red and green legs, brown tail, purple and yellow ears. 

(That girl LOVES color!)

I have a few modifications I make to the Chameleon pattern from Red Heart. Here's one I made with some Christmas yarn: 

Aliya thinks I should make one with a pink body, blue eye spot, red frill with yellow edging, and orange legs. 

And, last, but by no means least, is the Ballerina Kitty by Grace and Yarn (pattern link) 

This is one of my favorite patterns, and I have made over a dozen of them through the past few years. 

Chosen colors are: white cat, teal dress with dark blue stripe. Slippers/hair bow in teal. 

Okay, the granddaughters have spoken... Now I will spin the wheel of names and see which one I make first. I am putting the #GrandAmiVenture on my to-do list for April! 

Battle of the Scrap Bags

 On Veterans' Day (11/11/24), I went to a local thrift store, AmVets, knowing they would have 50% off all items. My husband needed a pair of jeans for gardening, and I was looking for a pair of jeans for myself, too. I figured if they had any yarn, that would be a perk! In the past, I got several full skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn for $2 each at that store. 

I hit the jackpot with yarn! I picked up 18 bags, a whole cartful! I spent $30.80 on yarn, and managed to find a pair of jeans for my husband, and a pair for myself! 

When I got home, I made a YouTube video about the yarn haul: Thrifting Haul Video

I pulled out a bag and got started.

 Bag 1

One of the first projects was making granny squares from the small scraps. Why? Because the jeans I bought myself were too short! I made some granny squares, sewed them together, and sewed them to the bottom of the jeans. 

In all, I made 10 projects from the bag, with an estimated sales value of $105. Some of the items sold already! (Marked with *) I worked on bag 1 from 11/11 to 11/21. I was busy on some other items because of a large custom order and craft shows. 

1. Variegated Pink Loaf Cat*

2. Granny Squares for my jeans

3. Blue-Green T-Rex

4. Variegated Pink Stingray* 

5. 3 eggs

6. Ballerina Kitty*

7. Camo sea turtle*

8. Flip Octo

9. Denim Cat

10. Ocean Ombre Turtle

I summarized the projects made from this bag in this YouTube video. There were a total of 10 projects with an estimated sales value of $105. Since I made these items in the middle of my fall craft shows, I already sold $36 worth of them, thus paying for all 18 bags of yarn already. 

On to bag #2 - started on 11/22

 This bag was a tangled mess. It took me an hour and a half to wind it into neat cakes. There were 36 balls/cakes of yarn. 

Projects: 

1. Rainbow Kooky Owl*

2. Green Snake

3. Green Axolotl

4. Rainbow Patches the Bear*

5. November Monster v. 1.0*

6. November Monster v. 2.0

7. November Monster v 3.0

8. Rainbow Loaf Cat

9. Green Snake

10. Happy Coffee (Matcha) Red

11. Red T-Rex

12. Christmas Snail

13. Christmas Snake

14. Green Angry Coffee

So, 14 items from this bag, with an estimated sales total of $96. I sold three items from the list, for a total of $34. I finished on 11/28 (Thanksgiving), thanks to craft time at my daughter's house, and somebody else cooking Thanksgiving dinner! Here is the summary video for that bag. 

On to Bag 3, which had a lot of small balls of Red Heart Neon Stripes yarn. This video

 goes through what was in the bag. 

Here's what I made from that bag: 

1) Neon Stripe Loaf Cat

2) Purple Monster - November Monster of the Month

3) Hilde the Highland Cow - Brown

4) Happy Coffee - Rainbow

5) Micro Octo

6) Purple Whale

7) Black/Rainbow Gecko

8) Gray Whale

9) Axolotl sleeping bag

10-12) Owls (Gufo Ernesto)

13) Rainbow Gecko (purple to red)

14) Super Scrappy Snake

15) Rainbow Dinosaur

16) Tanner the Mini Triceratops

17) Brown Mouse, red shirt

18) Neon Stripe Turtle

So, a total of 18 items, with an estimated sale value of $197. So far the most items from one bag! 

I opened bag 4 just before a trip down to PA (Dec. 13-15) for our family Christmas. The bag had a lot of white, which I needed for a Christmas gift for my granddaughter Lyra. She watches a show called "Hilda and Twig", so for Christmas she got a book and her own amigurumi Twig (a white deer-fox). I don't think I got a picture of Twig, but it is in this video.

1) Twig

2) Highland Cow "Curly"

3) Tanner the mini triceratops - Blaze

4) Snowman

5) Stegosaurus - Brick

6) Chubs mouse

7) Ombre Rex

8) Mouse - Purple Shirt

9) Stingray Purple

10) Stingray orange

11) Mouse - Blue & White

12) Hilde - Snowball

So only 12 projects from that bag, but many of them were bigger, more expensive items, so the estimated sales value was $218 (the best so far as I'm typing this). I finished up that bag 12/19 

Bag 5 - This bag was pinks and purples, one pound, 3 ounces. 

1) Ballerina Kitty - pink dress

2) Pink Jellyfish

3) Macaroon

4) Ankylosaurus (purple and gray)

5) Pink penguin

6) Purple Dachshund

7) Pink Monkey

8) Pink/Purple Turtle

9) Purple Bear, Pink Scarf

10) December Monster Pink

11) Pink Axolotl

Only 11 projects, estimated sales value $177

Bag 6 had lots of small pieces. It had 11.4 ounces of bigger yarn balls (27 of them) and 2.4 ounces of tiny scraps

1)  Blue penguin

2) Green Penguin

3) Purple Tail Merkitty

4) Rainbow turtle

5) Crazy Daisy Giraffe

6) Merkitty - white / pink

7) Pink Possum

8) Blue Brown Camo Cute little dino

9) Mico octo sad red

10) Micro octo angry blue/brown

11) Micro octo angry blue

12) Loopy Chicken Blue

13) Loopy Chicken Pink/Brown

14) African Flower Sea Turtle Pink/Blue/Brown

15) Pink/Purple Turtle

16) Navy Blue Monster

Pretty good assortment from this bag: 16 items made, $166 in estimated sale value

Bag 7 - started January 8 

1 pound, 1.3 oz of yarn - 16 good-sized balls and 40+ pieces of small scrap yarn. 

I set aside the yarn in the box for my first project. 

Bag 7: 

1. Ballerina Kitty

2) Crazy Daisy Cow

3) Camo T-Rex

4) Platypus (Blue)

5) Ombrea, teal turtle

6) Mini Stingray, purple

7-9) Micro Octos

10) Orange/White Chill Pill

11) Blue/Cream happy Pill

12) Brown/Blue/Pink African Flower Turtle

13) Blue/Camo Micro Octo

14) Green steg with rainbow spikes

16) African FLower Rutle Sunny

16) Light BLue Stingray

17) Messy Monster

18) Bluwe Axolotl

19) Purple Triceratops

20) Camo/Brown Land Turtle

21) Light Blue Triceratops

Bag 8

1) Ivory Basket

2) white Basket

3) Ballerina Kitty (brown with green dress)

4) Macaron

5) Peeps Bunny

6) Loopy Chicken Orange

7) Green/White turtle in egg

8) Orange Happy Coffee

Bag 9:

1. Flip the Fish

2. Blue Peep

3) Tanner - Pastels

4) Green Peep

5) Tanner Multi-Color

6) Armie of One 

I ran out of purple yarn making arms for project 5, so I used the one extra arm to make a cute little guy, an "Armie of One"

7. Christmas Chameleon

8. Tri-Color Happy Coffee

9. Mostly Blue African Flower Turtle

10. Green Maccaron

11. Yellow / Pink Maccaron

Bag 11 

I started Bag 11 on January 28. It was mostly orange with one skein of gold and one skein of gray. I discovered that the gray was wool, so I couldn't use it for amigurumi... so I made myself a nice warm cowl for this "winter that never ends". 

1. Gray Wool cowl

2. Mushroom Duck

3 Highland Cow

4. Cute Mini Dino

5. Allez Crochet Duck

6. Orange hat for #5

7. Orange Platypus

8. Small Beer

9. Large zBeer

10. Gold baby axolotl

11) Orange hamster

This bag was a total of 11 projects with an estimated sales value of $142.

Bag 12 was a single skein of burnt orange yarn (very vintage... back when there were K-Mart stores all over, and they carried yarn!), and it matched some of the leftover yarn from Bag 11, so I kept on going with orange projects: 

1) Orange Gecko

2) Loaf Cat

Only two items from that "bag", with an estimated value of $30.

Bag 13 also had orange in it! I was having a spinning wheel pick my next bag, and it kept coming up with the orange bags! 

1-2) Carrots

3) Mini Dachshund

4) Reese Ankylosaurus

5) Foxy Knoxy

6) Tommy Tiger

7) Peach Axolotl

8) Peach Hamster

9) Text Me Cookie

10) Geen Sparkle Turtle

11) Cactus

12) Green Stingray - small

13) Green Stingray - Large

14) Hug Monster

On February 8, I opened up bag 14. It contained over 90 very small balls of yarn, totalling about 15 ounces. 

Once I sorted things out, I saw that there were a lot of the same colors in bag #15 so I decided to merge them. 

I ended up with 8 bags of mostly one color, a scrap bag of pinks and purples, a scrap bag of blues, and a misc. scrap bag. I think I'm going to get a lot of projects out of this collection... 1 pound, 14 ounces total.

1. Chubby Blue dinosaur

2. Hatching Party Dinosaur

3 Black loaf cat

4) Flat Bear

5) Purple Elephant

6-8) Mushy Boi

9) Mushy Boi Mini

10-11) Mushy Boi

12) Mr Blue Striped Giraffe

13) Mushy Boi Mini

14) Pink Hamster

15) Pink Striped Stegosaurus

16) Camo Stegosaurus

17) Camo Baby Steg

18) Camo Mushroom Boy

19) Blue Stripe Steg

Bag Summary: 

Bag #   # of items made, Estimated sales value

1    10    $105

2    14    $96

3    18    $197

4    12    $218

5    11    $177

6    16    $166

7    20    $200

8     8    $83

9    11   $114

10    

December Monster of the Month

 

December Monster of the Month

This monster comes to you courtesy of my four-year-old granddaughter Lyra, who drew me a picture of a monster back in November. Since it was just before Thanksgiving, she drew me a “Pumpkin Monster”.

When we were at her house for Christmas, I started work on designing the monster.

When I said I needed to make the nose, she said she wanted me to use gold pony beads for the nose.

I tried putting them on the snout, but they looked more like eyes than nostrils, I added a smile at the bottom, and version 1.0 ended up with a turtle-type face.

I used a worsted weight yarn and size F (3.75 mm) hook.

I used less than an ounce of each color.

The body is worked as a rectangle shape, then sewn together at the short end and gathered at the long ends.

Start with chain 21 with color 1. Starting with the second chain from the hook:

Row 1 (and every row): sl st 4, sc 4, hdc 4, sc 4, sl st 4, ch 1, turn. (20)

Keep your slip stitches loose, so you can work in them more easily. Short version of the pattern: work 4 rows of each color until you have four wedges of each color. Change color with your turning chain.

Row 2-4: Color 1

Row 5-8: Color 2

Row 9-12: Color 1

Rows 13-16: Color 2

Rows 17-20: Color 1

Rows 21-24: Color 2

Rows 25-28: Color 1. At the end of row 28, finish off color 1, leaving a long tail to gather that end.

Rows 29-32: Color 2. Finish off, leaving a long tail to sew seam and gather other end.

Snout: (I used one of my colors for the snout and the other for the stem – but it’s your monster… you can do whatever you’d like!) I have included two options for row 3, to make a plain snout, or to make the pony bead version.

R1: 5 sc in MR (5)

R2: inc x 5 (10)

R3: sc BLO (10)

R3 pony bead version: BLO sc 4, pull yarn through bead, sc 2, pull yarn through bead, sc 4

R4: sc (10)

Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to face. If you did the pony bead “eyes”, embroider a smile along the loops of round 3.

Fold in half with the right sides together and sew the curved ends together. Use yarn end to gather the ends of your slip stitch rows together. Turn right side out. Sew snout over the hdc stitches on the center front of the monster. If you did the plain snout, add safety eyes 2 stitches over the snout, with 2-3 stitches between. Embroider nostrils on snout.

Stuff well and use the other yarn end to gather up the slip stitch edges. Weave in your yarn end.

Stem: with color of your choice

R1: 4 sc in MR (4)

R2: inc x 4 (8)

R3: BLO sc (8)

R4-5: sc (8)

Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to top of monster, over the gathered stitches.

Thank you to Strawberry Bonnie for testing the pattern for me. She used worsted weight yarn and 10 mm safety eyes. 

 

 

November Monster of the Month

November Monster of the Month

Made with worsted weight yarn and a 3.75 mm (F) hook, measures 3.5”  tall sitting, 6” at full height.

Takes about .5 oz main body color and 8 assorted 16” lengths of scrap yarn, plus small amounts of pink and black for face embroidery. I used 10 mm safety eyes.

 

Foot/Leg (make 2 in body color)

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: BLO sc (12)

R4: (sc 4, dec) x 2 (10)

R5: (sc 3, dec) x 2 (8)

R6: (sc 2, dec) x 2 (6)

Lightly stuff foot, then fold top together and sc across (2). This is Row 1 of leg.

R2-6: ch 1, turn, sc (2)           

FO. Legs will be crocheted in, so you do not need to leave a long tail for sewing. I leave about 3” so I can tie the two yarn tails together inside the body.

Variation: for longer legs, do more repeats of row 2.

 Body:

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: (sc, inc) x 6 (18)

R4: (sc 2, inc) x 6 (24)

Now we will add the legs. Hold the leg in front of your work and work through both the leg and the body as indicated.

R5: sc 8, sc 2 with leg, sc 4, sc 2 with leg, sc 8 (24)

R6: sc (24)

Now we add the arms. To make an arm, ch 9, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook (finger made),  (ch 4, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook) x 2, sl st in original chain back to beginning.

Variations: for longer arms, make a longer starting chain. For more fingers, repeat the (ch 4, sl st in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th ch from hook).

R7: sc 6, Arm, sc 12, Arm, sc 6 (24)

R8-10: sc (24)

R11: (sc 2, dec) x 6 (18) Stuff body.

R12: sc (18)

Place eyes between rounds 10 & 11, with 4 stitches between. Embroider a nose between the eyes, one row lower, and a mouth two rows below nose.

R12: (sc, dec) x 6 (12) Add more stuffing if needed.

R13: dec x 6 (6)

FO, leaving a long tail to close hole.

 

Hair: Take one of your 16” strands of scrap yarn. Pull up a loop at the top of the head. Ch 8. FO and trim ends if needed.

If you continue to use your F hook, the “braids” will be stiff and stand up straight. If you prefer a more droopy braid, once you have pulled your yarn loop through, change to a larger hook (I changed to a K hook).

Variations:

·       Use longer strands of yarn for longer “braids”.

·       Use the horn from a previous monster to add horns to your monster. Monsters from February, March, April, June, August, and September have horns!

Thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing the pattern for me. Her monster turned out so cute! 

October Monster of the Month

 

October Monster

By Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

Uses .6 oz worsted weight yarn in main color and a few yards in contrasting color, small amount of black for mouth and optional eyebrows

Size F (3.75mm) crochet hook

12 mm safety eyes

Sorry this is showing up a bit late, in November. I'm into craft show season, with craft shows every Saturday from October 26 through November 16, with three days of weekday shows mixed in! 

Since I've been so busy with shows, I made the October monster a smaller, simpler, quicker version. The only sewing needed is to add the spike strip to the head. 

Pattern: 

Start with legs, in main color.

R1: 6 sc in MR

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

R4-6: sc (18)

Finish off first leg. After making the second leg, don’t cut yarn. Continue on to connect legs and start work on the body:

R7: sc 6 on first leg, inc x 6, sc x 6. Sc 6 on second leg, inc x 6, sc 6. (48)

R8-9: sc (48)

R10: *sc 10, dec* x 4 (44)

R11: sc (44)

R12: *sc 9, dec* x 4 (40)

R13: sc (40)

R14: sc 8, dec, sc 4, arm, dec, sc 4, dec, sc 4, arm, sc 4, dec, sc 8 (36)

(Arm: ch 15. Sl st 3, *ch 4, sl st 3* x 2, sl stitch back along chain)

Stuff legs, and continue to stuff body/head as you go.

R15: sc (36)

R16: *sc 4, dec* x 6 (30)

R17: sc (30)

R18: *sc 3, dec* x 6 (24)

R19: sc (24)

Eyes go between rounds 18 & 19, with 2 stitches showing between. Embroider a small smile under the eyes.

R20: *sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

R21: sc (18) Finish stuffing.

R22: *sc, dec* x 6 (12)

R23: dec x 6 (6). FO, leaving tail to close up hole.

 

Spikes:

With contrasting color:

Ch 5. Starting in second chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc. *Ch 6, starting in second chain from hook, sl st, sc, hdc, dc* x 5. Sew spikes to sides of head. Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to monster. The chain between your 3^rd and 4^th spike will be over the final round of the head.

Thanks to Strawberry Bonnie for testing my pattern for me. She did embroidered eyes, and added some cute little cheeks!

#MYC1024 Option Two

If you follow me on my YouTube Channel you would know that I took over the Mystery Yarn Challenge from Lori, the Armchair Chef. With shipping prices going higher and higher, some people can't afford to send a package of yarn, so I want to have an Option 2 for people to participate. 

For the month of October, we are playing Bingo! Here is the Bingo board: 

How is it going to work? When you finish a project that matches one of the squares on the board, you cross it off (or fill it in with pretty colors). If you get five in a row, you are entered in the end-of-month drawing for a prize. 

 

Here is an explanation of the squares: 

Some have a color (orange, purple, green, ombre, Retro Stripe (a Red Heart Super Saver yarn) and Candy Corn Colors (bright yellow, bright orange, white). For this square, you just need to finish a project using that color. No double-dipping, though! If you make a project that uses orange and green, you can only fill in one block!) 

There are three designers in the grid... Yes, I am one of the three. 

You can see all my patterns on Ravelry 

Katie at Yarn Society is also on Ravelry, YouTube and has her own website

The third is Stringy Ding Ding, who has a bunch of adorable free patterns on her  and she is also on Ravelry

Some of the blocks list a specific animal or group of animals: penguin (of course... since I love penguins), Pet (dog, cat, fish, ferret, hamster, gerbil, etc.), Creepy Crawlie (bug, snake, lizard, dinosaur, turtle), Forest (deer, squirrel, fox, bear, etc.), Farm (chicken, horse, donkey, pig, etc.)

Other blocks: 

Fantasy: dragon, unicorn, mermaid, monster, etc. 

New to you pattern: find a pattern you have never made before

2 oz scrap: find a 2-ounce (or more) scrap yarn and finish it off

From a Book: pull a book from your crafting library and make something from it

New To You yarn: make something from a yarn you have never used before

3-weight or lighter: make something with thin yarn (yes, you can hold two strands together)

5-weight or higher: pull out that bulky or super-bulky yarn! 

Halloween: anything with a Halloween theme

Fuzzy Yarn: fun fur, yarn with a halo, eyelash yarn, etc. 

Motif: make something with a motif, like a granny square or hexagon

I know that some people make wearables, not Amigurumi, but you can apply the categories to wearables, too... you could make an animal hat, or add an animal applique to a blanket. I hope this challenge inspires you to try something new! 

No double-dipping, please. One project cannot fill in multiple squares. For instance, if you made a green and purple snake with bulky yarn, you would have to choose one square to fill in... you can't do green, purple, 5-weight or higher, Creepy Crawlie and Halloween. Sorry! 

Pics of the 5 items to complete your Bingo row need to be in by October 31. You can do more than one Bingo. I will enter your name in the prize drawing for each Bingo row you complete. 

Once I have my YouTube video done about the challenge, I will link it here. 

If I get questions in the comments on my YouTube video, I will try to remember to post the answers here, too. 

Micro Octo - no-sew pattern

An early version of the pattern, where I put more rows in the body, making it taller. 

Micro Octo

Pattern by Elaine Okupski of Penguin Place Crafts

This is one of my go-to patterns when I'm trying to finish off some scrap yarn. It works up quickly, about 20 minutes, and only uses half an ounce of yarn. I usually have a basket of them on my table for craft shows as an inexpensive option for parents wanting to get their child a little stuffie. 

I made these with worsted weight yarn and an F (3.75mm) crochet hook. I have also made them with two strands of sport weight yarn held together for a "tweedy" look, or with bulkier yarn and a larger hook. With the worsted weight yarn, I used .47 oz for the light blue octo I made as I was preparing this post. 

You start at the top, add the tentacles in the front loop of your last full row, then move to the back loops of that same row to close up the bottom. Here goes: 

Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6)

Round 2: inc x 6 (12)

Round 3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18)

Round 4: *sc 2, inc* x 6 (24)

Rounds 5-7: sc (24)

Round 8: hdc (24) Sl st to FLO of first hdc in the round. Move your stitch marker to the back loops of that same stitch. 

Note: I like to do my last full row in hdc so that I have one front loop for the tentacles, and two back loops for the decreases. 

It's easier to embroider your octo's face now, before the tentacles get in the way. I put the eyes around round 5, and the smile over rows 7/8. You can use safety eyes instead of embroidering. 

Round 9a (tentacles) All of the stitches of 9a are worked in FLO

*Ch 7, in 2nd ch from hook, sc inc, sc inc, hdc inc, hdc 2, connecting dc, skip the next stitch, sl st* repeat from * to * 7 more times. Your final sl st will go into the base of your first tentacle.

Connecting dc: draw up a loop in your last available chain, and then another loop from the next available front loop. Finish off as a normal dc (yarn over and pull through two loops, yarn over and pull through two loops). 

 

Round 9b: Now you are working in the back loops of round 8, starting with the stitch with the stitch marker. 

*sc 2, dec* x 6 (18)

Round 10: *sc, dec* x 6 (12) Stuff your octo's body. 

Round 11: dec x 6 (6). FO, leaving a tail to sew closed. Weave your yarn tail through the stitches of round 11 and pull to close. Tie off and hide your yarn tail inside the octo. 

Variations: 

It's easier to make your tentacles longer... start with a longer chain for each tentacle, and add extra sc.

You can make the tentacles less curly by doing sc in the first two chains instead of sc increases. 

If you turn your work before you start working on the tentacles, the tentacles will curl inward instead of outward.