DIY a Gift: Crochet a Summer Celebration Garland

So, it’s no longer the same summer during which I created this...but the good news is, it’s now almost summer in the other hemisphere! The one situation is which time is forgiving, that there is always somewhere in the world where it is almost, currently, or only just the end of, Summer.

Inspired by the Aussie beachside summer; this amigurumi garland was originally designed to adorn a pram, but can be used anywhere in your home that needs a bit of a summer sparkle. Or for that matter, leave the garland out entirely and just make these little amigurumi cuties on their own.

Needless to say these amigurumi also make terrific Christmas tree ornaments, if you are indeed prepping for a hot Aussie summer.

As it was designed for babies to interact with, each of the amigurumi make a different noise; the octopus has bells, the ice cream a rattle, and the crab crackly plastic. Keep in mind that the bells should only be used if baby can’t reach to put the octopus in their mouth - no matter how well we try and secure, they can still find a way to bite them off and swallow! So if you’re at all nervous that baby could get the octopus into their mouth, perhaps slip these inside the body rather than dangling on the tentacles.

Now, let’s get started!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Cotton yarn - I used 8ply, but you can use whatever you have around home
2.25 crochet hook (or appropriate for your yarn size)
Embroidery thread to add eyes (if it’s for an older child, or you, then you can use safety eyes instead)
Different noise making items; e.g. bells, rattle parts, crinkly plastic.
Polyester fibrefill
Scissors to trim
Yarn needle

STITCHES YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW:

Chain - CH
Single crochet - SC (double crochet in UK/AU terms)
Increase - INC (2 x sc into the same stitch so that the number of stitches grows)
Invisible decrease - DEC (Picking up the front loop only from the next two stitches and sc them together - so the number of stitches decreases)

Making the Octopus:

First we make the body of the octopus..

Round 1: Create a slip knot and chain 2, 6 sc into the second chain from the hook (6 stitches)
TIP: If you would prefer, you could start off with a magic ring and 6 sc into the ring - this is just my personally preferred method.

Round 2: Inc all around (12)
Round 3: *Inc, sc*, repeat from * six times (18)
Round 4: *Inc, 2 x sc*, repeat from * six times (24)
Round 5: *Inc, 3 x sc*, repeat from * six times (30)
Round 6: *Inc, 4 x sc*, repeat from * six times (36)
Rounds 7-13: Sc all (36)

If you are using safety eyes you can add them now, if you are embroidering them on you can either do it now, or wait until the legs are on to choose your positioning.

Now we create the ‘disc’ that forms the bottom of the octopus body. When you start stitching there, leave a really long tail at the beginning (20-30cm) as this is what we’ll use later to hang the octopus from.
Round 1: Create a slip knot and chain 2, 6 sc into the second chain from the hook (6 stitches)
Round 2: Inc all around (12)
Round 3: *Inc, sc*, repeat from * six times (18)
Round 4: *Inc, 2 x sc*, repeat from * six times (24)
Round 5: *Inc, 3 x sc*, repeat from * six times (30)
Round 6: *Inc, 4 x sc*, repeat from * six times (36)
Now we have finished both parts of the body, we will connect them. You will notice that both are 36 stitches around so that they line up - we will stitch through each of these stitches to ‘seal’ the body, putting your hook through the matching stitches of each piece at the same time.

First of all sc about half the way around, and then stop to stuff. Use the poly fibrefill the stuff the body of the octopus. Keep an eye on the shape of the octopus as you stuff, as we don’t want too much in there otherwise the octopus will become a ball shape. If you’re not using the bells on the tentacles, you could add bells or a rattle inside the body at this point too.

Now remember the long yarn tail I asked you to leave when we created the bottom disc of the body? Thread it onto your needle, and sew it up through the centre hole created when you started the main body piece (from the inside out).

You now have a strand to hang the octopus from! Technically you could also just attach a new piece of yarn, but we use the yarn coming from the bottom because this way we also pull the bottom up, helping to avoid the ball-like body shape you can get after stuffing the octopus.

When you’re happy with the appearance, complete the full row of sc around the outside to seal the body.

Making the tentacles.
We need to create eight tentacles in total; use this guide to see how to position them (or really you can do any positioning you like, this is just my maths for the spacing I chose so you don’t have to!)

Each leg is very simple - just attach the yarn to the desired stitch, chain 30, and then single crochet into each chain back up the leg (this will be 29 in total, as when you starting crocheting it is into the 2nd chain from the hook). Then tie a knot to the body to make sure its secure, and weave the end.

To lessen the number of ends I had to weave in, I did each half of the legs with an unbroken piece of yarn. Just start at the front tentacle, and when you are finished do 2 slip stitches until you are at the position to start the next tentacle by chaining. This will be slightly visible on the end product, so if you would prefer you can join them all separately. This is just my little cheat!

Embroider the eyes on now if you haven’t already, and we’re done!

Making the Ice cream.

First we start with the ice cream scoop.

Leave a long tail at the beginning of your scoop (20-30cm) as this is what we will use to hang it.

Round 1: Create a slip knot and chain 2, 6 sc into the second chain from the hook (6 stitches)
Round 2: Inc all around (12)
Round 3: *Inc, sc*, repeat from * six times (18)
Round 4: *Inc, 2 x sc*, repeat from * six times (24)
Round 5: *Inc, 3 x sc*, repeat from * six times (30)
Round 6: *Inc, 4 x sc*, repeat from * six times (36)
Rounds 7-14: Sc all (36)

When you’re done, sew the long tail from the beginning back through the starting hole out the other side, so that it is sticking out. Pause here, and let’s make the cone.
Round 1: Create a slip knot and chain 2, 6 sc into the second chain from the hook (6 stitches)
Round 2: Inc all around (12)
Round 3: Sc all (12)
Round 4: *Inc, 3 x sc*, repeat from * three times (15)
Round 5: Sc all (15)
Round 6: *Inc, 4 x sc*, repeat from * three times (18)
Round 7: Sc all (18)
Round 8: *Inc, 5 x sc*, repeat from * three times (21)
Round 9: Sc all (21)
Round 10: *Inc, 6 x sc*, repeat from * three times (24)
Round 11: Sc all (24)
Round 6: *Inc, 7 x sc*, repeat from * three times (27)
Round 7: Sc all (27)
Round 8: *Inc, 8 x sc*, repeat from * three times (30)
Round 9: Sc all (30)
Round 10: *Inc, 9 x sc*, repeat from * three times (33)
Round 11: Sc all (33)
Round 12: *Inc, 10 x sc*, repeat from * three times (36)
And our final round: Round 12: Stitch 3 x sc into each stitch from the previous round, into only the front/outer loop of each stitch.

This creates the frilly edge at the top, and by leaving the inner loop of each stitch untouched, we have a row to easily attach the ice cream to.

Stuff the cone with stuffing, again being careful to not overstuff so it retains its shape.
Create your rattle piece for the ice cream; for mine I used a small hard plastic cylinder designed for cosmetics while travelling, with a couple of old coral beads inside. Stuff the ice cream half way, place your rattle inside, and then some more stuffing. Sew the ice cream scoop to the cone, using the final row of the ice cream and then untouched inner stitches of the cone.

Embroider on the eyes, and then use a variety of colours to sew on the sprinkles!

Now last of all, the crab!

Repeat to create two identical discs for either side of the crab’s body.

As with the octopus, we’ll now stitch single crochets around the outside through both discs at the same time, to ‘seal’ the body. When you are about half way around, stuff the crab. Rather than poly fibrefill, I used scraps of the crinkliest plastic I could find (I just kept an eye out across all plastic packaging over a couple of weeks and saved it). The cotton yarn will soften the sound a bit, so make sure you test it inside the crochet crab to make sure you’re happy with it. Once you have your chosen stuffing inside, just sc the rest of the way around all 48 stitches, and then trim and weave in the ends.

Making the claws:
Round 1: Create a slip knot and chain 2, 6 sc into the second chain from the hook (6 stitches)
Rounds 2-5: Sc all (6)
Round 6: Dec x 3 (3)

Repeat to create two front pincer claws, and then attach them in place on the body.

We again make the legs similarly to the octopus. Attach the yarn at the correct stitch, chain 12, and then Sc back along the leg until you reach the body (total of 11 single crochets). Slip stitch two stitches along until you get to the next leg position, and repeat for all 8 legs.

As we didn't have a tail left over to hang the crab by, you can either extend the tail from the you sew together the body, or just tie on another yarn thread for hanging.

Bringing it all together.

If you plan to use these individually, congrats you are already done! You can just tie your hanging tails into loops by attaching the end back to the amigurumi, leaving your desired length free.

To create my hanging strand, I just held together 3 strands of cotton of different colours, and created a length of chain stitches about 1.5 metres long. Then attach the hanging tails on each amigurumi to this chain cord; I doubled over a few times, attaching to the cord and then back to the amigurumi a couple of times to be more confident it is attached firmly given they are for children to play with, then hide the end back inside the amigurumi.

And you’re done, give them a jiggle and revel in your brilliance!

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