Nicu Lil Octopus Crochet Pattern Tutorial ~ Octopus Toy Amigurumi Crochet Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja from Crochet Ever After and today I'm going to show you how to make this little octopus guy. So I made him for a specific reason and that was for some research that's been done finding that putting these octopuses with premature babies in their incubators can help them thrive, can help them feel better, get healthier faster. I'm not going to get totally into that because Medical advances and things change all the time, so I don't want to give you the whole spiel about it, and you're watching this maybe two years after I've made it, and it's no longer valid, so click on the link in my description. To read more about the octopuses used in the NICU, to see if you want to donate any, if there's any hospitals asking for them around you, or even if you know somebody with a premature baby, that you could go to that hospital and talk to the doctors and say, Google this, see if this is something that would interest you, that kind of thing. Okay. So. Another great thing that you could do with this octopus though that I realized as I was making it is that it would probably make like a really fun cat toy. And I have designed this so that it is completely Um, attached. It's completely crochet as you go. So there's no making the tentacles and then sewing them on at the end. They are all connected to the body and it's all one piece so they cannot be pulled off and, you know, anything bad can happen to any animal. They're all connected. Um, so it's a pretty simple project because it's just this one kind of circle and then the legs that you repeat eight times. We're using worsted weight yarn. I recommend cotton if you are using it for a baby because it's just a nice material that most people are not allergic to. So cotton worsted weight. I'm using a 3.5 millimeter crochet hook, nice and small to get these tight stitches so that no stuffing shows through. And then for the stuffing, I'm using scrap yarn. And I'll talk about why I chose scrap yarn instead of polyfill during the project, so you can check that out. Just go ahead and download the pattern in the link, and we will get started. Okay, so we're going to start our octopus with the beginning six single crochets in either a magic adjustable loop. I'm not going to do a magic adjustable loop, I'm going to show you an alternate way. Because some people love Magic Adjustable Loop and some people hate it. So I'm going to show you an alternate if you're in that hate category. So instead of a Magic Adjustable Loop, you can put a slipknot on your hook. And this is also really good for beginners who, having gotten the Magic Adjustable Loop mastered yet, but want to make amigurumi or anything that requires a hole closed. So instead of the Magic Adjustable Loop, we're going to chain two. So we're going to yarn over, pull through one, make it nice and tight, we don't want it real loopy, make it a nice tight chain, and then yarn over and pull through a second Now, what we're going to do, instead of doing the magic adjustable loop, is we're going to do six single crochets in that first chain we made. So, the tighter you can make it, the less of a hole will result from those six single crochets. So, let me show you. So, you're going to... Oops, I lost my loop. I always like to hold on to it. I'm going to insert my hook into that first chain. Anywhere, it doesn't matter. Yarn over, pull up a loop. I'm going to do my first single crochet, pull through both loops. Then I'm going to go back in, same chain, do another one. You'll see I'm pulling and wiggling as I go through because I wanted that chain to be really tight. You can see that I can't really see a hole yet forming, so you just have to make sure you're getting in that same chain. Always turn your hook towards your stitch and you'll get through easier which is really important when you're doing like amigurumi because the stitches are so small for the actual yarn you're using. So normally you would be using an H to a J or a five millimeter to a six millimeter hook for this worsted weight but we're using a 3.5 because we want really tight stitches. So again I go back in don't worry about your tail just kind of push it out of the way. Pull up, pull through both two. Now if you're brand new and you're not counting and you lose track, There's an easy way to check them because trying to figure out how many stitches you have here is really difficult counting the front of them. So always count the tops of them. You'll see that that looks like the letter V. So the V's go into each other. And you'll see they're kind of laying on top right now. That's just kind of what happens when you're working in the round in this first round. It'll They kind of lay on top the whole time but it won't be as noticeable but you can see I have one, two, three, four, five. So I just need one more. So I go back in that hole, pull my loop, wiggle wiggle, and then pull through. Now I have six. I'm not joining because we're going to be working in spirals and you can see that my center hole, there's just a tiny bit. You can kind of see the white in the background. Just a tiny tiny hole. That hole shouldn't be a problem, especially since we're stuffing the octopus with yarn instead of polyfill, so you most likely will not have to do anything with that hole at the end, but this is just an easy way, instead of doing that magic adjustable loop, to make this kind of closed hole at the beginning of your project. Okay, now we're ready for round two and we are going to be increasing in every stitch we just made. So we're going to do two single crochets in every of the six stitches we just made to make 12 stitches. So this is going to be a little difficult at first because these stitches are so small and tight and they're really kind of hard to see. So you really got to rely on the tops of your So we only want to get under those two loops. So you'll see I'm kind of drilling in there to get through that first loop. So when you're counting, or if you're looking and you're like, I don't understand where I'm supposed to put my hook next, count backwards, count those Vs again. Not the one on your hook, but the one that's right below it. This V right here was the very last stitch you made, so that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. So that's the stitch that you're going to work into next. I'm going to make just one first. Once you get under it, it's a little bit easier to get that second one under. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Pull through two and then I'm going to stop and put in a stitch marker here. You must use a stitch marker or a piece of yarn or bobby pin, whatever it may be, to make sure that you're keeping track of your rounds because there's no joins. So if you don't mark it when you start getting further in you're going to lose your place, especially if you get up and leave trying to figure out where that first stitch of the round is is going to be impossible. So get it. A stitch marker, you'll see that I put it under the top two loops, whatever works for you to make sure that that stitch is marked as your first stitch. Some people like to put it in the last stitch of the round that they worked, either way. I like doing it in the first stitch because I can just keep going for the whole round without having to stop. When you put it in the last stitch then you of course have to stop right at that last stitch and take it out and do two stitches and then put it back in. So I just like doing the very first stitch of the round, putting it in, and then I don't have to think about it while I'm working the entire round for my instructions. Whatever works for you. So now we need to increase into that stitch that we just worked into. So you can see a little closer. You can see the stitches going into that V. If I pull on it there's the tiniest of holes because this hook is so small it creates these really tight stitches which is what we want because we don't want all the stuffing to fall out but it makes it really difficult to work into. So we want to go back in where that little tiny hole is and we want to do another single crochet. Then we see our next V right here we need to do two there. You can hear my yarn squeaking because it's so tight with this little hook. Again, the next V we see, another two. So this stitch marker helps because you'll know when to stop the round. That's why I like it at the beginning because you'll know when to stop. You don't have to sit there and go, um, how many stitches am I supposed to do in this last stitch? Because you'll have to, you know, if you put it in the last stitch of the last round. I'm doing two in every stitch around. Again, if you get up and need to figure out, you know, where you're at, how many stitches you're supposed to do, count the tops of your stitches, because still, those are really hard to see. They're all squished together, so counting the front is nearly impossible, so count the tops of your stitches, and it'll be a lot easier. So I have one more stitch left here, do two more in there, and then I should have 12 stitches At the end of this round. We're roundy for the ready. We're ready for the next round. All right, I just finished round two. Now I'm ready to start round three. So I am going to need to increase again this round. So I'm removing my stitch marker and I'm going to be placing six more increases around my circle at regular intervals. If I were to If I placed them all in one spot, I'd have a big bump. So as my instructions state, the first thing I'm going to do is do two single crochets in my next stitch. So just like before, I do the first stitch and I place my stitch marker. Then I'm going to go back into that same stitch and do another single crochet. Now I'm going to space out my increases by doing one single crochet in the next stitch that I come to. So by doing this I'm going to increase six stitches and I'll have 18 stitches at the end of this round. So again I do one single crochet, I go back in, I do two single crochets in that same stitch, and then I go to the next stitch to create my final one. And then I'm just going to repeat that process all the way around so that I end up with 18 stitches at the end. So we'll meet up right at the end of this round to move on to round 4. Okay, just doing the last stitch of round three, now I'm good to go for round four. I'm going to, again, remove my stitch marker so that I can start my first stitch, and it's going to be just the same as we did. We're going to do two single crochets in that very first stitch, so I'll do one, replace my stitch marker, then I'll go back in and do another single crochet, but this time... The instructions tell us to spread out the increases this time instead of by one, but by two stitches. So I'm going to do one single crochet in the next stitch and then one in the stitch after. So I'm still increasing by six stitches and I'm doing it nice and even by adding extra stitches in between. So at the end of this round I'll have 24 stitches total. So I'm doing I'm doing my single crochets. Then I go back to increasing. I do two single crochets in the same stitch and then I'm going to do one single crochet in the next two stitches all the way around. So we'll meet up at the end of round four and keep on going. All right, we are all done with round four, ready for round five, which is going to be our final increasing round. So same as we've always done, remove the stitch marker, do two single crochets in the first stitch, just do that first one, replace your stitch marker, and then do the the second one in the same stitch. so we We've spaced out our increases by two stitches on the last round, and one stitch the round before that. So now what we're going to be doing is spacing out our increases by three stitches. So we do two single crochets in our very first stitch, and then one single crochet in the next three stitches we come to. And that's going to give us, again, six increases for the round, and a total of thirty stitches at the end. So once we finish this round. We're all set to go and we'll start making the body of the octopus. So keep on going around and we'll meet up at the end. Here comes my last stitch of the round, round 5. Now we are going to just start building the body of the octopus. And I want this more oblong than round, just so it's a little easier to grab onto. For the babies, if that's what you're using it for. So I'm, and if you want it more round, just do less of these coming up rounds. So we're going to do round 6 through round 16, all 6 through 16. We're going to do, to make it more oblong. If you want it more round, just take off a few rounds, like go like 6 through 12 instead. So we're gonna just single crochet in every stitch we come to. One, put in my stitch marker. We're gonna do these on our own. We're gonna keep coming back because it's the same thing over and over. Just make sure, do not forget to put your stitch marker in. So we're just doing one single crochet in every stitch around. And you're gonna do two or three rounds and you're gonna think you're doing something wrong because it's not going, it's still It's still gonna look flat. It takes. A few rounds before it's going to start to cup up and get round. So when it does it, you should be looking like a bowl here. So the front that's facing you is the outside. You'll see that the other side looks very different. It has your tail. These stitches look much different than this side. If you like that side, that could be your outside too, totally up to you. But technically this is the right side, so when you're working it, when it starts to cup up, I'll come back when it starts to cup up so you can see how it's looking, but you'll normally work it this way with your stitches being on the outside rather than having it cupped in and working it in the inside. So keep working the rounds, keep replacing your stitch marker, And I will come back in the round where it really starts to cup up so you can see. Okay, I just finished round 8, so you can see that I've got a nice little bowl going on so you can see that it's starting to cup up. So, I'm just going to keep on going until I get to round 16, so that's when we're going to meet back up. I just wanted to show you that after about 3 rounds, you'll get the rounded shape. I get comments sometimes, they're like, it's still flat, and I didn't increase, but it's just, it just does that the first couple rounds, so don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong, just keep on going, and then, and yours might still be flat, so if you're not crocheting as tight as I am, and yours is still showing a little flat, that's just because your stitches are a little looser, mine are so tight that it's Forcing it to cup up faster, so if you're a little looser than me, no problem. You'll have just a little bit bigger octopus, as long as you don't have super big holes. You don't want big holes where the stuffing is going to come through. Because we're using yarn instead of polyfill, that's not really going to happen, but But, um... just for future knowledge, if you're ever going to use polyfill for your octopuses or anything else you make, Um. Just tell me in the comments if I'm, which one, plural octopus is, what you'll want to make your stitches tight if you're going to need polyfill. So just keep going, I'll meet you back at the end of round 16. Alright, I'm on the last stitch of round 16, see I have a nice little tube going. So now we're going to start closing up the bottom of the octopus. Not totally because we're going to kind of create the legs attached so we don't have to worry about any legs coming unattached. So the first thing we need to do is decrease. So we did increasing here to make it bigger, now we need to decrease to make it smaller. So to decrease we're going to do two single crochet or single crochet two together which means I'm going to take these two single crochets the next two and turn them into one. So I'm going to insert my hook under the first one, Yarn over and pull up a loop. Then I'm going to go into the next one, so right to that next stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop. So try to keep your loops the same size as the shaft of your hook to keep them nice and tight because if you start pulling them up as you're pulling them through you're going to have a really loose looking decrease. I'll show you that when we get to the next one. I'm going to tighten this down, pull on them as I pull through to keep them nice and tight so that they're not super noticeable. They should stay in line with the rest of your stitches. So, after that decrease, I'm going to single crochet in the next three stitches. So, it's kind of like a reverse. And just so you can see it, this kind of pulls all the way over here. It almost pulls over to that very first stitch. So, you have to go quite a ways to get to your next stitch. Here is where we did the two together. So, you can see a little tiny V, but that V is attached to that last decrease. So, we need to go to that next V after it. So it's a little bit far away, so try to keep those a little tight as well so that you don't have a big gap from where that next stitch is meeting the decrease. So we're doing three single crochets, so that's one, and then two, and then three. So it's just like the reverse of our very last increase, we increased, see how the split apply there. Or just release if you split and start over. It's the reverse of the last increase we did, where we did increase in three stitches. Now we're doing decrease in three stitches. So I'm gonna do this one loose just so you can see what it looks like if you do your single crochet two together loose. You can see I'm just kind of pulling up on the loops, not really paying attention. And you can see that it's a lot bigger. So here's my last decrease. This one when it's already like at the next stitch. Go to work into that stitch. It's much more noticeable. So try to keep your stitches nice and tight on those decreases so they don't show up too big. So again, I go into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop. And you'll see this is how I work my tube. I push it down on the back side and below the row on the side that I'm working. Because if I kind of just squeeze it together. I'm going to have trouble getting through my stitches. I'm going to go through both ends, so I don't want to do that, so I kind of push it down and squish it together, just so it's a little easier to handle, because trying to hold on to it, like the inside of your loop or the inside of your tube, is a little tedious, so I just kind of squish it all together so I can hold it as one piece. So go into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through all three loops. Then go to the next stitch over here and do three stitches again. I'm getting over to the corner here so I readjust my little squish that I got going on. I pull it open and squish it back down. Then again do my decrease and three stitches. So just keep doing that all the way around. I forgot to put in my stitch marker but I lucked out because these are decreases and they're really easy to see. So like well not really easy but you know way easier than a regular stitch so I can find where this should have been. I didn't follow my own advice. So I can see, here is my very first one. So I can just keep looking until there's no more. So that's my very first one, which was my very first stitch. Saved myself, thankfully I forgot on the row that was easy to find, the round that was easy to find it. So, I'm gonna keep going with my decreases till I get back to my stitch marker. Oh, I also looked up the plural of octopus. It is octopuses. Octopi is a common error because of the Greek, it's a Greek word, and it's actually octopodes is the correct plural, but people get it confused with the Latin plural, which would be octopi. So it's not octopi, it's octopuses. Just so, in case you're wondering. So I'm going to keep going around now. Okay, this is the last stitch of the round. Now I've got 24 stitches and you can see it's starting to go the opposite way. And I'm going to remember to put my stitch marker back in. So we're going to start the next round and we're going to do another decrease. So again, we insert our hook into the first stitch and pull up. And then the next stitch, pull up. And then pull through all three loops and then put your stitch marker back in. And now we're going to do two stitches in between each decrease. Total reverse of what we did for the increases. So one, do another decrease, two stitches. We just keep doing that till we get back to our stitch marker. All right, we got that round done. Do another decrease round. So we're gonna do a decrease right at the beginning again. two together, stitch marker back. Then we're gonna space those out with one single crochet between each decrease. Single two together, single, just keep doing that around, and then we're going to do a little bit different next round, so we'll head back for that in just a second. Last stitch done. Now I have 12 stitches, so what I'm going to do before I start the next round is pull out this loop so I don't lose it, and then I'm going to stuff the octopus. Not like totally totally, but enough where it's not going to be super hard after this next round is complete. So as I said before, I'm using yarn to stuff this one. Usually with amigurumi you use like polyfill, but the one thing with polyfill, and I'm trying to make this as safe as possible for babies, is that it can poke out sometimes through the little holes. So if you're not getting it totally, or even when you're stuffing it. Little pieces of it can get stuck to the outside, so I don't want anything fuzzy on this that they can, you know, could potentially be a problem. So, I'm using yarn. Now, you can use any scrap yarn you have on hand, but if your holes are a little large... And what you can do is use the same color yarn as what you made the octopus out of. That way it'll kind of give the illusion or it'll kind of fill in those little holes that you have from what you made with the same color so that you're not having to worry about a different color showing through. So whatever works for you. I'm just using some super bulky because it's nice and fill it and will stuff faster. So I'm just gonna sit there and keep pushing in yarn until I like how big it is. Alright so you can see I just like kept shoving yarn in there and how much yarn it actually took and I still have like a little bit of a spot around here that I can fill in with some more so after I do this next round I'm gonna stuff in that last bit. But you can see it's a little difficult you have to keep kind of pulling and pushing to get all the yarn in there and just kind of shove it down so it's you know the The squishiness that you want, I kind of made it still, it's still got some give to it, but it's firm enough that it's keeping its shape. So now we're going to finish our last round. Okay so for this round it's going to be a repeat of the last round because I don't want normally you would do a single two together all the way around and you would end up with six stitches but I want to end up with eight stitches because octopuses have eight legs. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to single two together And this is where it's a little difficult. I put my finger here so I'm not catching any of the filling as I work. So I kind of reach in and then go up so I don't get caught on anything. So I'm doing one single two together and then one single crochet. So at the end of this round, I'm going to put my stitch marker in just a second. At the end of this round, I will have eight stitches. So, do one. Single two, single crochet two together, and then one single crochet, and keep doing that to the end. Okay, here's my last stitch again, I'm gonna pull that long again because I want to stuff this a little bit more right along the edge, otherwise it's kind of like this, I want it to kind of stick out a little bit so it looks a little bit more like a head. Whatever I want it to look like you can stuff yours as much or as little as you want So you probably saw during the fast-forward that I had like kind of a haircut So I'm using all those little haircut pieces Just hold all of your tails out of the way and your stitch marker out of the way. You're using a yarn stitch marker and maybe a little bit more difficult. That's why these locking ones come in handy I'm gonna stuff these real quick. Okay, I'm gonna do this last bit here and I'll be done So you see I'm using a larger crochet hook with a bigger handle to kind of push these in. It's helping. The finger does not quite fit in there, so get MacGyver-y with your stuffing if you need to. So now we're going to leave that hole alone because we're going to start making the legs. So the legs are going to be worked... Into these stitches so that everything is attached so we don't have to worry about anything coming detached You know if you're going to be giving this to a baby, so we're gonna start the first leg So I'm just gonna leave the stitch marker here for now. We're gonna go ahead and do some chains So we're gonna do 25 chains and we're gonna be working into these so you don't have to make them tight or super loose, just your normal chaining that you like to work into 25 and then we will start making the first leg. Okay I've got my 25 chains so now I'm going to work in the second chain from my hook. I'm going to skip that very first one that I made and start single crocheting into that second one. So I'm going to do two single crochets in that chain. You can grab wherever you want. You can grab the back loop or the bottom bump. The way that this is going to curl up If you want to just do the back loop, that's fine, it's not gonna, the edge is not gonna be like super noticeable, so using the back bump, this one here, instead of the bottom bump, which are these guys along the bottom, will be faster, so I'm gonna do that. So we're gonna do two single crochets in every chain, so as I make these, it might pull the next chain a little small, so just look for that back loop that's coming over. So you'll have this nice big hole that you worked into, and then a loop, that's the loop you're working into, and then look for the next one right after it that you're going to work into. And we're going to do two single crochets in every single one of these chains. So there's going to be 24 chains total after skipping that very first one. And it's going to give a spiral, but not like a super tight spiral. If you want like a really tight spiral leg, you can put three single crochets in each of the chains, but I kind of want these a little bit longer. So they're not so tight, and you can also make the chains longer if you want the legs longer, but one of the articles that I read said that eight inches is kind of the max that you want to go for whatever reason, so I'm trying to keep the leg under eight inches. So just keep on with the two single crochets in each of your chains. Okay, I'm just doing the last single crochet of the chains. And then what I'm going to do is I am going to connect this leg to our circle. So I'm going to take out the stitch marker, yarn down, and then I'm going to slip stitch into that next stitch of that very last round. So I'm going to insert my hook under those loops, yarn over, pull through, and then yarn over and pull through the loop on my hook. And that's going to help secure that leg. It's not going anywhere. And we're all set. So we have seven more of those to do. So right where you're at, you're not gonna move. You're just gonna do another 25 chains and then do your two single crochets into each chain again, and then we'll come back after we finish that leg just to make sure you understand how to attach it to the circle. So continue with the 25 chains and the two single crochets in each chain. Stitch of this leg. Now we're going to slip stitch this one to our next stitch. Here is where we slip stitch the previous leg, so we go to the next stitch after, insert under those two loops, pull through, and pull through the loop on your hook. So notice, you can't go this way, so you kind of got to, whoops. And you'll lose it. So you got to be careful when you're doing this slip stitch because it's a little difficult. You kind of want to hold on to... I kind of grab this loop as I'm pulling through with the other one so it kind of gets obscured on the camera but that's kind of how I get through. So that way it's a little easier. So now I've got two legs down and I've got five to go. So I have, I'm not counting right, I have six more to go and I have six stitches left. So I'm going to go make these six more legs. So it's just chain 25, single crochet two times in each leg, and then slip stitch it to your next stitch. So do that six more times and we'll come to right at the end to take a look at our little octopus and finish him off. Okay, I just finished the last leg. Now I've got eight legs all together. And all I need to do is join this last leg to the last of the eight stitches with the slip stitch. And then I'm almost done. So, once you've finished this, you're going to fasten off. Pull it tight. So I just do another chain to fasten off. All these legs are crazy in the way. Pull that tight. Good enough to get on your yarn needle. I'm going to pull the tail out. I've got my little yarn needle, darning needle, tapestry needle, whatever you have on hand. And you'll see that you still have an open hole on the bottom of your octopus. So now what we're going to do is close that up completely so that nothing will fall out. Thread your needle, but these stitches are kind of small now. From doing all the slip stitches. So what we want to do is we want to go around. So if we kind of pull this apart and push the yarn back in, you'll see that there's kind of like a little area here where we worked all those stitches and slip stitches into. We want to run our yarn around that spot. So if we reach in, that's why I like the bent needle because it's a little easier to get in there. So I'm going right from where my tail is. And I'm going to this inside portion. It's going to be very tight, so just do a couple of stitches at a time. If you want to mark where you start, because it's probably going to get a little bit difficult to tell where you started. Where did my stitch marker go? It was my stitch marker! Just mark that area, put a stitch marker in the leg or whatever. This is why I'm using a smaller needle, because it's easier to get through these tight stitches. Keep working your way around. Okay, once you get back to where you began, you're going to take that tail and you're going to pull on it and it's going to close up that hole. Just keep pulling. It might be a little difficult to get it completely closed because there's so many stitches and stuff in there. So then you're just going to go across and kind of sew it up, kind of go back and forth across your hole, catching those same stitches and get it. It should close up pretty much the entire way once you do the cross stitching because it kind of pulls all the legs together basically. The great thing about amigurumis is you don't really have to weave in any tails. So once you get it to as closed as you want it, you can kind of just tie it off. You can make like a little knot, have this hole here, reach my needle through it and pull on it, knot it down, then I can run my needle right through the center, shoot it Okay, so that is our octopus now if you're giving it to a baby I would just leave the eyes off, you know if it's for like a NICU, but if you want to put eyes I would only use embroidery, so I would just use some black thread and maybe put, like, little winky eyes or something on it if you really must have eyes. If you're giving it to, like, a friend, an adult, or anybody over three, you can use safety eyes, which are the little plastic eyes that poke through. On the video, I told you when you should insert those, so those are very easy. You can put them wherever you want on the head. You can also do felt. So you can cut pieces of felt. So you can do like a white circle and then put a little black circle inside and glue it on. You know, make cute little felt eyes. Lots of different options. Remember that you can make the tentacles longer by just chaining more. So it's kind of the length of your chain and then half is what you'll end up with kind of when it when it twists up. But that is our octopus. If you have any questions, leave them below and thank you for watching.