Slim and George Make A New Friend

It was my friend Jodi's birthday recently and I decided to gift her an octopus for her cats to play with. She sent me some cute pictures of Slim and George investigating their new friend, and I'm going to share them with you!

It's always nice when a crochet gift is appreciated, whether by humans or cats or both!

An Unusal Tree Topper

My wonderful friend Nicki texted me the best picture ever the other day. I just have to share it with you! She was decorating her Christmas tree with her husband Jake and the subject of a tree topper came up. What was his delightfully silly contribution to the project? He took a crochet octopus I had previously given to Nicki and gave it a new home.

Aww! What an honor to be a part of their holiday season in this way :) Whatever you happen to celebrate, I hope that all of your holidays are filled with happiness (and tentacles)! <3

Remix Friday: "Hook" Hook Case

I have a lot of respect for people who are bistitchual. Also referred to as multicraftual, which sometimes includes crafts outside of needle arts, bistitchual people are proficient in both knitting and crochet. My forays into knitting haven't gone so well, but I'm not giving up hope! It's especially motivating when I see awesome hybrid projects like today's featured Remix. Kristy's crocheted Hook Hook Case goes from simple utility to truly inspired with her special knitted addition. Take a look!

The Crocheter
My name is Kristy.  I have my BA in Textiles, and I teach different kinds of textile classes to both children and adults.  My main teaching focus right now is crochet (I teach 3 to 4 crochet classes a week - depending on the week).

The Original Pattern
Aluminum Crochet Hook Case by Priscilla Hewitt

The Story 
This hook case was for me, and it has been a real conversation starter.  The reason why I made it was that there was a challenge in one of the Ravelry challenge groups that I was in at the time.  I don't remember what the challenge was, I just remember what my inspiration was.  I was a member of a Disney team, so my tie in had to have something to do with Disney.  I was watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates while crocheting the case, and it was an episode about Captain Hook's hooks being stolen by an orange octopus.  Bingo!  I knew that I wanted to add an orange octopus to the case and call it Hook's hook case.  I love that I was able to combine both knitting and crochet together, and that I could control what the octopus looked like on the case (how I sewed the tentacles).

The Remix
I followed the pattern exactly.  The inside plastic canvas is brown, because the store was out of black at the time.  What I added to the pattern was a knitted orange octopus around the outside of it.  I also added a black snap button to keep it closed.

Crochet is... fast, easy, and fun.

Incredible. I have a soft spot for octopi because they are so intelligent and mysterious. Certainly sneaky enough to steal those hooks! What a beautiful bridge between knit and crochet. For more crafty goodness check out Kristy's blog, YouTube channel, Facebook group, and website. Thank you so much for showing and telling today, Kristy!

Under the Sea

The ocean rocks. It's just incredible. The wonder and awe that the ocean inspires in me comes close to the awe I feel when faced with the universe. The immensity of the ocean calms and humbles me. I care very much about the health of the ocean and its vast numbers of marvelous creatures and you should too. This post is going to be written in honor of those delightful, spooky, diverse deeps.

First up on the ocean pattern agenda is this darling little lobster. What a great scrap project! It worked up quickly with great results. Maybe he'll be first lobster in the nativity play this year.
 

                           

I am very pleased to report that the happy little guy now lives on my husband's desk at work.

Next up is this fabulous octopus pattern. There are so many octopus patterns out there because octopi are very trendy at the moment. I have always loved octopuses (both plurals are acceptable!) for their intelligence, curiosity, and general impressiveness. To be honest I'm not really a fan of the many octopus patterns that are overly comical or what I like to call 'squidgy', like if you were to squeeze them they would squeak. When I found this pattern I was thrilled that it was both straightforward and realistic. Maybe I love it a little too much...I made five of them and I'm likely to make more! It translates so well between multiple yarn types and sizes. In case you're wondering, and I know you are, their names in order of appearance are Mondo, Dawn, Dusk, Ingrid, and Henry.

Another amazing ocean-themed crochet project is hyperbolic crochet. Grounded in math and science, this form of art is unique to the structure of crochet as opposed to knitting. I think it would be a perfect learning opportunity for kids because it demonstrates the order and structure present in nature in a very tactile way. I haven't yet worked up my own hyperbolic crochet. When I do I hope to donate it to the Crochet Coral Reef. If you haven't yet checked out this project, I highly encourage you to do so! What a wonderful way to use crochet to inspire and educate others.

I see many more ocean related crochet projects in my future. Wouldn't it be cool to crochet a big wave and hang it on the wall with various creatures all over it? If you have some favorite nautical or oceanic crochet patterns, drop in on the comments! We'd love to hear about them.