I can't believe I've never posted any of my crochet projects here! I've learned so much from Craftster. Time to come out of the shell a bit and give something back.
I made this little guy last night whilst putting kids to bed and watching Star Trek: TOS. All told, about 2 hours. (Pardon the iPhone pic and plaid jammies.)
The technical info:
I used a size F hook (3.75mm) and Sugar n' Creme 4-ply cotton yarn. He has 8mm black safety eyes from PlanetJune.com. I saw a somewhat larger jelly on Etsy which brought it to mind, but I did not eyeball any specific pictures closely nor use a pattern to create him. I went based on memory of things I've made in the past. His body is about 1.5" tall, and with the tentacles he's about 4.5" long.
I'm sure there are patterns aplenty for jellyfish, but here's roughly how I made him. (This is a rough pattern which assumes you already sort of know how to make amigurumi -- my first tutorial, so be kind!)
Baby Jellyfish TutorialRnd 1: Magic loop with 6 sc. (6)
--alternatively: ch 2; 6 sc in 2nd chain from hook.
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around (12)
Rnd 3: sc in next st; 2 sc in next sc; repeat all around. (18)
Rnd 4: sc in next 2 sts; 2 sc in next sc; repeat. (24)
Rnd 5-6: sc in each sc around. (24)
Rnd 7: sc in next 2 sts; sc2tog (18)
Rnd 8: sc in next st; sc2tog (12)
**Add safety eyes and stuff firmly! At this point, if you wish to make an ornament loop, you can pull the starting tail through the magic-loop and tie it. I chained mine and tied it very clumsily. You might wish to use a cute ribbon or something instead.
Rnd 9: sc2tog all around (6).
At this point, I sort of slip-stitched each 2 stitches together until the hole was closed. Tie off, leaving the thread to dangle.
This is probably not the right way to do it, but after the ball was complete I realized my jelly had no ruffle! Unacceptable!
RUFFLE:
Step 1: sl-st to attach yarn to one of the posts (I picked one that was front-and-center. Not recommended. Start in the back if you can!). You'll bury the tail later.
Step 2: ch 2
Step 3: dc twice on same post.
Step 4: sc on next post.
--repeat rnds 2-4 all around, then sl.st and tie off. Leave a long tail, then use a yarn needle to pull it into the body and down through the bottom somewhere. You'll see why.
CURLY TENTACLES (make 2-4, I was lazy and made 2 of these):
-ch 16 (roughly; you can make longer legs if you wish)
-hdc twice in each ch for 11 ch's (until 4 remain)
-hdc in next 2 ch
-sc in final 2 ch and tie off, leaving a long tail to attach to body
Less-curly tentacle for dangle-length variation (I made 1):
-made as above, but only hdc twice in the first 4-5 ch's. Thereafter, hdc once in each st, sc in last 2 sts.
FINISHING:
-Use a yarn needle to attach each leg. Jellyfish are very imprecise, so don't worry too much about spacing them evenly, just try to fill up the empty spaces on his bottom. If your tails were long enough, you can simply leave them to dangle as shown in the pic, or bury them inside the body if they're too short.
-Once all 3 legs are attached, if he still looks a little uneven or unfinished, take longish strands of yarn, fold them in half and hook them through onto the posts (like latch-hooking, but without the latch).
-Trim up the dangly pieces of yarn so they're even (or sort of uneven) and you have some trailing man o' war-style tentacles!
And you're done! Use him as a keychain, an ornament, or a decoration!
button to nominate it!
