Kid's Yarn Octopus

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Kid's Yarn Octopus

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In need of kid's craft ideas?  This yarn octopus is a great way to get the entire family involved in crafting.  Make a cute octopus out of yarn and ribbons with this fun and easy project.

Materials:

  • 1 5oz skein of bulky yarn (the bulkier the better)
  • 1 3" styrofoam ball
  • face pieces
  • scissors
  • 2-3 yards of ribbon

Instructions:

  1. Completely unwind the yarn into a 2-3 ft loop - I used a back of a chair.
     
  2. Cinch off one end of the loop.
     
  3. Cut the other end where the loops are - try to cut them as even as possible.
     
  4. Place the ball under the cinched end and spread the yarn ove the ball as evenly as you can.
     
  5. Cinch under the ball to make the neck - by now you should have a bunch of single strands of yarn hanging from the neck.
     
  6. Divide the strands into 8 sections for the legs.
     
  7. Braid each section and cinch the ends with ribbon.
     
  8. You should have 8 braids hanging from the neck.
     
  9. Now you can put on the face pieces.
     
  10. Enjoy the fruits of your fun labor.

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I adore the Yarn Octopus! I saw it when I was looking through the projects in 38 Ways to Use Up Yarn. The instructions are so easy to understand and after reading other people' posts, I think I will make different sizes. Love it!

When I did this as a child, we squished a newspaper into a small ball (depending on which size octopus we wanted), coated it with glue and covered it with the yarn. Then we followed #4 directions. Never gave it a face though.

In reply to all you other grandmothers, those were the days!!

Oh, this takes me back - my gran used to make 'em just like that. That was in the 60's.

When I was 14(centuries ago),I made a bunch of these to give to the kids on our church bus. I have been planning on making some big ones for my granddaughters.

We use to make these as kids, they are easy and a great fun craft for children, and it also loooks pretty good with left over yarn a multicolored occie is fun. you can do sewn eyes from contrasting yarn for the little ones or use craft eyes that either sew or glue on

WOW! That does bring back memories. I made one of these about 40 some odd years ago. I had forgotten all about it! Thanks for sharing. Now I need to make one for my granddaughter.

Ha!! I remember having these on our beds when we were younger! Like someone else commented above, ours had the "google-eyes". Thanx for sharing and bringing back memories!

My girls and I made these when they where little girls. They used to put them on there bed like in the picture after they made their beds. This brings back memories! :D Diane

How cool, I had this when I was a kid. Wonder what happened to it. Got 7 kids to make a lasting memory for. Thanks for sharing.

This project brings back so many memories. I used to make these for gifts. I used three skeins of rug yarn fo rthem. I even made a red "Santa' octopus complete with white beard.

Popular when I was growing up. Great activity for nursing home residents and assistant living residents, and the girl scouts and a neighborhood group of kids.

My great-aunt made me one of these in the 1950's ! Hers had "google-eyes". The sunglasses are better.

As mentioned by other crafters, this was a great, and fun project. Being one of eight children, we had loads of fun making different accessories for each of our creations.

These were popular when I was growing up!

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