for Rav: jellyfish, originally uploaded by earthchick.

I knit stuffed toys about as often as I knit baby blankets, which is to say not very often. I need only point you to the great dinosaur-knitting disaster of aught-six, for you to see why.

I don’t mind the fiddly-ness of knitting toys. It’s the stuffing and the seaming that always causes me problems (the same holds true for sewn toys – which explains the unfinished Big-Footed Bunnies that were supposed to be for the boys for Easter 2008; those bunnies still stare at me from my craft closet. Except that they have no eyes. Because sewing on buttons and embroidering face details are also things I don’t like to do). Enter Hansi Singh. This jellyfish pattern of hers is genius! Seriously, y’all, it is one clever little pattern.

You start with knitting the tentacles. Each tentacle takes hardly any time at all. You whip up all six, and you’re practically done with the jellyfish.

Then you start on the top, and you knit from the top down. The most fiddly part is getting things started, and from there, it’s easy-peasy. The brilliance lies in how she has you finish things off – no seaming. You just knit till there’s only a little hole left, and then you stuff it, and then you draw it closed.

Then you sew the tentacles on and add the little string things, et voila! – you have yourself a jellyfish.

They are pretty addictive.

pattern: Jellyfish, by Hansi Singh, [raveled]
yarn: the yellow is a Cascade 220 Painted, the orange and brown are both Cascade 220, and the white, purple, and fuschia are all leftover Wool of the Andes that had been sitting in my stash for a long time.
needles: size 3 – I have finally learned my lesson. With something you plan to stuff, knit at a much smaller gauge than the yarn would otherwise call for.
dates: July 20-25
mods: none needed

I made these for Susie, our friend who hosted us at her beach house last week. Her house is decorated in such a great, funky, whimsical style, I think these jellyfish will fit right in. One of her bathrooms is a bright blue with huge orange jellyfish painted on the walls. Those inspired me to find a knitted jellyfish pattern, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with these. There are a lot more Hansi Singh patterns I want to knit now.