KNITTING OCTOPUS

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This kind cheerful resident of the oceanic depths can become a souvenir, and decoration, and a toy. You can make a whole octopus family - the product is made very simply from available materials without any special tools. Even children can easily make it.

For work you need:
- yarn (threads for knitting, for example, wool),
- strong kapron thread (20-30 cm.),
- thin multi-colored silk ribbons or ribbons for gift wrapping: 8-10 pieces of 15-20cm long, 0.5-0.7 cm wide),
- white paper and colored pencils for drawing (eyes, mouth),
- a sheet of thick cardboard in A4 format for the initial blank,
- glue, scissors.

Manufacture:
1. Wind the threads evenly on a sheet of cardboard. To make the octopus well-fed, you need 100-130 turns of thread (depending on the thickness of the thread). Winding, lay down the thread without pulling, otherwise the cardboard will bend, and you will not get the desired length of a turn.

2. Carefully removing the skein from the cardboard sheet, nylon thread securely tie the threads for 6 - 7.5 cm from the edge. This will be the head of an octopus. It should turn out almost round, so keep in mind that this lump will be its “inside out” or the middle, evenly covered with threads again during the following steps. If made shorter, the octopus will look disproportionate even as for a toy. If it turns out longer - the elongated shape of the head will not have stability, and the threads will bend, forming ugly loops.

3. The edge, which is longer, is cut. It turns out something like a whitening brush. These threads are the future tentacles of an octopus, so their length should be about 2/3 of the entire product.

4. Having taken the uncut edge-lump in your hand, you need to turn it over and evenly distribute the threads in a circle so that they beautifully cover the base - like combing a wig. It is convenient to perform this step by placing the blank on the table.
5. Now, having determined which head has turned out and not turning over, we tie it in the “neck” area with a thread of the same color as the whole craft. Do not tighten too tight, otherwise the octopus will fall on its side. The diameter in this place can be 3.5-4 cm ...

6. The most interesting: we divide the threads into 8 straight strands and weave braids-tentacles, we tie small bows at the ends. If it is a male octopus and you consider bows inappropriate, you can just cut the ribbons shorter and tie a modest knot. After the tentacles are made - the final touch: you need to carefully trim the threads at the ends of the braids with scissors.

7. It remains to draw eyes and a smile, cut and paste. Why use pencils, not felt-tip pens? It is known that in contact with liquid glue, felt-tip pens immediately leak. Quality pencils give vivid, steady colors. Draw a few options and choose the most suitable one.
A girl octopus can tie a bow. An octopus boy can make a hat.