Island of Misfit Patterns

by Em

Here is my ‘pattern’ for the squid I made- It’s the first one I’ve ever written out, so I’m sure it’s far from perfect. I also wrote it up after I finished it and haven’t made another to test it (because lord knows I’ll never put it up if I have to do that first). so any suggestions would be appreciated, or something is wrong, just let me know!

anyways, those are my disclaimers, and here goes:
Adventures in squiddom

Yarn: Paton’s Classic Merino wool. Much less than one skein.
Needles: Clover size 7 Dpn’s

Body:
Cast on 26 sts
knit 20 rounds in sockinette
purl 1 round, increasing every other stitch (39 sts)
purl 1 round.
purl 1 round, increasing every third stitch (52 sts)

transfer to two DPNs- 26 on each,
Knit the next 12 rounds, decreasing a stitch at both ends of each DPN
when you’re down to 3 sts on each needle bind off using three needle bind off.

Long tentacles, Make two:
cast on 6 sts.
k 24 rounds*
k2 into each stitch (12 sts)
k next round
k2 into every other stitch (18)
k two rounds.
(k 2tog, k)3 times (12 sts)
(k 2tog) 3 times (6 sts)
(k 2tog) 3 times (3 sts)
k 3tog-
run excess yarn back through tentacle

Short tentacles (make 8**):
the short tentacles are basically an icord-
cast on 3 sts,
Knit 9 rounds*
P 3 sts.
k, k2 into the middle stitch, k
p 4 sts
k, k2 into middle two stitches, k
(P 2tog) 3 times
k 3 sts
(p 3 tog)
run excess yarn back through tentacle

*looking at squids, they don’t seem terribly symmetrical, so I didn’t make all the tentacles the same length.

**Squids have 10 tentacles (I googled it:) promptly after I googled it, apparently I forgot, and my squid only has 8 tentacles- so, depending on how precise you are, make the appropriate number of short tentacles.

Finishing:

Evenly space small tentacles around the edge of the squid.
I felted my squid before sewing on the long tentacles… Using about 6 inches of yarn, I loosely attached the long tentacles to the inside top of the squids head- after felting I used some black acrylic yarn to sew on his eyes, which were about 1 sts wide, and two sts high-

Because of the size of the needles the stitches are still visible despite the felting, it didn’t bother me much, but I intend to tinker with the pattern a little w/different needles/ more aggressive felting.