Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Cuddlefish

This is my little cuddlefish!




















I didn't write down a proper pattern, but here is a general manual on how to make it:
I used a 4.5 mm hook and fun fur, and some thick blue yarn that was a leftover without a label, but probably some kind of wool-acrylic blend.


It’s made starting at the mouth. I chained maybe 8 stitches of the wool. (It could be less, I can’t count the stitches through the fun fur, it’s hopeless. Lol!)

1: sc 16 in the ring. Leave a long end hanging to make the lips puffier with later.

2: Switch to fur yarn. Sc 1 in each stitch, but since the fish is not round as a ball but flattens at the sides, you have to add two stitches at the top of the ring, and two at the bottom on every round. I did it by sc’ing three stitches in one.

3: Because of the fur yarn, there’s no need to do nice invisible row changes, so I didn’t join with a ch, I just started crocheting in rounds. Each row adding two stitches at the top and the bottom, until it’s the size you want.

Then just continue without adding for maybe 10-15 rows (or as long as you want the middle part to be) after which you start decreasing. It’s the same as the front, but instead of adding two, you just crochet three stitches together. I do it like this: insert hook, yo, pull through, insert hook in next, yo, pt, insert hook in next, yo, then pull through all the loops on the hook.

At some point before the hole gets too small, you’ll have to start stuffing the fish.

When you’ve decreased until you have some 10 stitches left, you just go a round of decreases as described above. When the fish has the shape and amount of stuffing you want it to, close off and weave in the end.

I made the lips puffier by sewing with the thick yarn around the ring a couple of times. At the end I drew the string inside the ring and pulled at it until they stuck out as much as I could make them.

The fins were improvised, something like this:

Tail:

Ch 8

1: sc 8

2: sc 3, sc 2 stitches in next, sc 3, sc 2 in next.

3: Continue to increase with 2 sc’s on each row until the middle, then start decreasing again.

You’ll need two parts, I stitched them together before sewing them on to the fish.

Top fin:

Ch 16

1: Sc 16

2: decrease at the middle of the ring with one stitch on each row. When it’s about 8 rows high, flip inside out and close the hole with slip stitches.

Flip outside out again, and sew onto fish

Small fins on lower side:

Ch 10

1: sc 10

2: decrease one stitch on opposite sides of the fin

When you’re down to 6 stitches left, close off and sew on to fish.


The eyes were just two crocheted white circles, with two smaller dark blue circles sewed on to them.


Yep, lots of explaining. So don't hestitate to ask! :)





1 Comments:

Blogger Crystaltarot said...

I am a crochet nut, hence my handle on blogs - themadcrocheter, lol. I think the fish is adorable, and probably a perfect cat toy too.

5:17 PM  

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