Yarn Octopus

Yarn Octopus 🐙

This months Waldorf Magic guide ‘Worlds under water’ has been such fun to work on. I cannot wait for August and our own family beach holiday to explore this guide and deepen our connection to the ocean.

I see many of you going on holiday now..or preparing to, so thought I would share one of the wool crafts from the guide (out the 26th July).

This wool octopus is so easy to make and great as a handwork project for older kindergarten age children, plaiting allows children to cross the midline and unravelling the yarn requires those gross motor movements and hand eye coordination.

✨Have a go yourself at making this octopus and if you would like to make some friends then sign up to my mailing list to be notified when the Worlds under Water guide is released✨

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You will need:

- an old pair of tights

- wool stuffing

- wool yarn

- a pair of scissors

- buttons/beads/sticky dots for eyes.

What to do (follow accompanying images)

- stuff the toes of your tights with wool to form a head. Think about the elongated shape of an octopus head. Tie off at the bottom and trim the excess tail.

-wrap wool around the centre of the head this stops the wool slipping later on and tie off.

- Unravel the wool into looped lengths around about 4 times longer than your octopus head. Keep unravelling, you want as much as you can so as not to leave bare patches. I used a whole 25g ball of @jamiesonsofshetland Shetland spindrift for this project.

- Knot the wool at one end and then cut the loops on the other end so you have what looks like a giant tassel.

- Turn the wool over with the knot in your hand hidden under the wool, insert your head with the knot at the crown and smooth the wool yarn over the head, brushing with your fingers to leave a smooth finish (make sure there are no gaps)

- Use a piece of wool to tie and secure at the base of the head.

- separate the wool around the head into eight legs and plait each securing with a tie of wool

- Finally add some beads or other material for eyes (I used Velcro sticky dots and superglue)

Hello octopus! A simple summer make that is great for play and the seasonal table! Enjoy