December 7, 2020

Apollo the Octopus & an Oppopus

Well it certainly has been a while since I've posted. Having kids will do that to you. But as the kids are now one and three, I am able to get back into crochet at least a little bit. Gotta say I missed it.
I had bought these three colors at a going out of business sale for the purpose of making fish hats in the colors like Rainbow Fish, but a pattern came along my crochet feeds and I had to switch gears.

Apollo the Octopus, by Projectarian, was making the rounds on social media and I knew I wanted to make one and these yarns practically screamed out ocean to me.

Yarn used: 

Cascade Yarns, Luna Paints, cotton hand painted (discontinued)
    - Dark blues - Blue Hydrangea, color 9990 - used as main body color
    - Green blues - Waterlily, color 9792 - used as color for suckers
Belly yarn was two kinds held together, as both were a bit too thin on their own.
    - Rozetti Lumen - white cotton with rayon shiny areas
    - Rowan Summerlite 4ply cotton in Pure White

For some reason I though that the three skeins of Hydrangea, two skeins of Waterlily would be enough yardage, but I was lucky enough to get a few more skeins from kind souls who had these colors in their stash on Ravelry. THANK YOU!

Not going to lie, the suckers are tedious... but they really are the best part once done. It's amazing to run your hands along them. I probably took about 4 months on this guy working on and off. It was tough to keep the kids from running around with the completed tentacles as I worked to finish all 8. 

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While waiting to see if I could get enough yarn to finish it, once I had run out, I started on a second one for my daughter who desperately wanted her own "oppopus." I used a smaller hook, and a thinner silk and bamboo blend from Patons in Sapphire for the body. The belly yarn was Naturally Caron Spa, a silky bamboo blend in Misty Taupe, which is kind of a very soft tan, like sand... Of course I got two tentacles done and realized I had not enough to do the rest... So her Oppopus turned into a bit of a stash buster as I went through the single skeins of Naturally Caron Country in Ocean Spray blue, and Naturally Caron Spa in White. I had plenty of the Misty Taupe for the belly so the bottom is all one color. I did not do the suckers on hers.



There ended up being two white, four Ocean Spray, and two Sapphire tentacles. So I arranged them as if it were in the middle of  color changing from white to dark blue. Once into the body, I started carrying the two blues along with the misty taupe and had the idea to make the head sort of change color as well to match. So I used taupe along the white legs and the corresponding blue on the other legs, so that the color flowed up into the body. They ended up being sort of diamond shapes on the back. I softened the transition with the very last scraps of yarn by embroidering a few different colored pips.

Holding the yarns together took away any stretch that the shape had, so the head ended up being a bit tall instead of rounded. But I made the best of it with some overly anime-ish eyes and a happy face, as my daughter said it needed one. 

With hers done I could get back to mine now that the yarn had arrived to finish it.

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Putting the legs together is a bit tough since they are so big. I had them spread out on the table so they could spin around flat while I would crochet along the tops. Id also used stitch markers to hold them to each other. After the initial few rows I tied them together long ways with some scrap yarn in one big chunk to make working into the head a bit easier. Compared to the tentacles, the rest of Apollo was a breeze. 


I really love the eyes, both because the pupil shape is so unique and perfect, but also because I was able to use up the super tiny bit of my absolute favorite color of Madeline Tosh I could not bring myself to toss. It's that multicolor right around the black pupil and I love the way it looks with the other variegated yarns. 
The solid blue of the rest of the eye is Naturally Caron Country in Peacock blue. 


Did I mention yet that he is huge? Such a nice weight too with the cotton yarn. He makes an excellent floor pillow as his head is a lovely shape and the arms add support or comfort. I was seriously laying in the sun on him watching my son play in the leaves.




How much better can it get? The real question is how long till I have to make another one for my son...

Difficulty: Advanced-ish, but the pattern has a million pictures which is so helpful.
Time to complete: about 40 hours for Apollo, maybe 15 hours for Oppopus