Retro Octopi!

I found an older Crafts mag from '08 that had an

adorable blue Octopus! Feeling so badly because I haven't crafted in a bit I scrounged for materials to make this.

You need 100 yards of yarn

2- 10" pieces of yarn or ribbon to tie around middle and neck

8- 1" pieces of ribbon or yarn to tie at ends of braids

1- 3" styrofoam ball- but I used a 1" ball

Google eyes (I did not use these as I have a little one that would probably chew or pull them off-choking hazard)

Tacky glue for eyes

Hold your hands about 3 ft apart and have your child wrap yarn around them to

form one large ring of yarn.

Knot one of the 10" pieces of yarn around the middle of the ring.

Place tied ring on tabletop and snip both loops.

Form the head by placing the center of the knot on top of the ball and drape the yarn so the ball is covered evenly.

Take last piece of 10" yarn and tie just below ball.

Braid your tentacles!

Divide the yarn strands into 8 equal bundles (I did it as closely as I could)

Start to braid

*TIP!

Have your child hold the head of your adorable Octopus to help the braiding process. This will give you tight braids. Please don't look closely at mine! LOL! I started off with the multi colored one and it looks funny and puffy on some of the tentacles until I had the lightbulb moment of calling Alex to give me a hand. Jess helped me with hers as well!

Have fun!