Sushi Fish

A cousin-in-law (relationship terms are confusing...?) is graduating this month. She is going off to study at the Texas A&M Galveston where they do marine biology stuff. So, I wanted to get her a present and thought I would make her a little something silly and appropriately themed.

I've had this pattern for a Fish that turns into a sushi roll for a while now... I have no idea how I found it. Today when I went to look up the pattern, so I could get a link, I saw that the blog site it belongs to is entirely in spanish. The site is Irka! The pattern seems to be the only one on the site that is in English, but if you speak/read spanish there are a ton of adorable flower dolls on there in the Free Patterns tag.

There a few small issues I had with the pattern, maybe because of how it was translated. Also to note... I remember that "y" is "and", but had to look up "cad" which is spanish crochet abbreviation for "chain". On the body of the fish, in round 7, I think it needs to be an increase and then 4sc. And somehow at row 12 I still had 22 stitches instead of 24. Anyway I ended up doing two rounds of 22 and then immediately doing the increase row to 24 and skipping the two 24 around rows since I think I did two extra 22 rows... since it isn't super size important I figured I could fudge a little.

I used a bunch of colors that I had lying around. This is a great yarn consumption project. I had a kind of smallish ball of the orange and I was worried I would not have enough of for the fish body. Turns out that was more than enough. There were no suggestions for hook size, but since I was using all worsted weight yarns, I used my go to H/8/5.00mm hook.

So here is my finished fish. I gave it dead eyes since I stink at embroidering round eyes, and safety eyes might be too bulky to allow the transformation part. (Colors: Orange, Light Yellow, Green, Black)

dead fish :(

Once again in the sushi part, I had trouble making the bottom of the sushi roll part, but just kind of fudged to get it to be the same size square shape. Also, when I counted, both squares had 28 sts on the outside not 36... somehow I messed that all up.

Instead of making the rectangle nori wrapper, I decided to just start on the edge of the top piece and crochet it right onto it. So I did 28 stitches in back loops only to get a crisp white to green edge. Then did 6 rows of 28 around for depth. At this point I was really worried that my fish would not fit inside the sushi piece I was making...so I added another thickness row to make it 7 rows high.

unstuffed roll

Then I made sure I turned that roll part inside out and stuffed it into the fish mouth, lining up the hole and the mouth. I used the orange tail from the fish to sew the sushi opening inside the mouth. I like to when the roll is stuffed in, that the orange stitches inside the white look like teeth inside the fish maw. Plus then it just looks like a crocheted fish toy... In case you have vegan friends I guess.

*boop* boop* insert fish noises here

When the sewing is done the roll then can be pulled out and comes out right side out. Like so:

what is that fish kissing??

When the roll is stuffed with the fish you have two options: a) all in where the tail and butt look like fish, avocado and cucumber, or b) tail out for a more tempura fish roll look. Ha!

I know what I'm having for lunch today.

Time to completion: 2-3 hours. Skill level: super easy.
Final thoughts: Would make again for sure. Might do a little rewriting of the pattern for my own use, but really good pattern and so fun.