You may remember this craft project from your childhood days. It’s an easy project and the finished product makes an adorable decoration for a child’s room. The octopuses can be hung on the wall or from the ceiling or they can sit on top of the bed, dresser, or other furniture. Give these as gifts to the children in your life!
Kids love these creatures; besides being a cute decorative piece you can use your yarn octopus as a place to display and organize hair clips or even use it to hold earrings. The instructions are below.
Things You Need
1 skein of heavy-weight yarn in your chosen color
1 Styrofoam ball to use for the head (a 3-inch ball works great)
Ribbon to tie off the braided legs
Pieces of felt, buttons, or other decorative items to create the octopus face
Scissors
Glue or needle and thread
Instructions for Making Your Yarn Octopus
Begin by unwinding the yarn into a large loop – wrapping the yarn around the back of a chair works great.
One end of the loop will be the ‘head’ of the octopus – the other will be the octopus legs.
You can choose to give your octopus hair (as shown in the picture) or to leave him ‘hairless’.
If your octopus will have hair you will cut each end of the loop. Then you will gather all of the yarn at one end and tie it off with a strand of yarn or ribbon. I suggest that you use yarn if the octopus is for a boy’s room and ribbon to make it more feminine.
Slide the ball in under where the yarn is tied off. Evenly spread the yarn over the ball and then tie the yarn off under the ball to hold it in place. This creates the octopus’s neck.
If your octopus will not have hair you will only cut one end of the loop. The ball will be added to the closed loop end. Spread the yarn evenly over the ball and tie it off underneath.
At this point you should have the head of the octopus ready for its features to be applied – and the rest of the yarn should be dangling below. Separate that yarn into 8 sections. Braid each section and tie it off.
Now you are ready to decorate the octopus’ face. Buttons, felt pieces and other items can be glued or sewn on to add facial features.
After your octopus is decorated to your satisfaction it is ready to be enjoyed. Let us know what you think of this project!
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