Octopus and Companion Cube...what?

Now that the baby shower season has past (see previous posts) I am knitting for myself again. Or so I thought. I set out at the beginning of the week to knit up some super-cute amigurumi octopus. I purchased the pattern on etsy.com and have been trying to find time for them for months now. The time has finally come. I knit up three of them, in various colors, and can't get enough. They are pretty easy to do. Each tentacle takes about 5 minutes, then assembling them and adding the body takes a few hours. This is a one-day project for sure.





I am getting requests for these little guys, but all are spoken for, they will find a place of honor in the knitted aquarium in my classroom. I also have patterns for a small squid, a cuttlefish and a dumbo octopus. Not to worry, all of these will be in the aquarium someday. One of my favorite parts of this pattern has to be the head shaping. I love how organic it looks. Also, I love the way each tentacle curls a bit at the end. I didn't put anything in them, they just naturally do that.

A few months ago, one of my favorite students (he is reading this...hi Griffin!) asked me to knit him something. I said I would if he pulled his grades up in Marine Biology. Well, he did, so I had to follow through. I asked what he wanted, thinking he would like a nice, simple beanie or something like that, but he had a very specific item in mind. A knitted companion cube. Not really knowing what this was, I agreed. Turns out it is one of the most challenging projects to date. 3-color fair isle, knit in the round, with spacers between each side of the cube. So, I knit this strange looking tube. Seen here with the guts showing.



Then, I ran it through the sewing machine a few times, to strengthen the seams and help keep it from unraveling. Then, I CUT IT INTO 6 PIECES. It was pretty tough to do. Cutting something that I spent hours working on. I took my too-sharp Gingher shears and CUT.



Then I spent my Saturday evening seaming the sides together. I cut squares of high density foam and layered them into the knit box.

Once the last piece of foam was settled in, I seamed around the last 4 edges.

The result is a strange not-quite-square "thing" that is exactly what he wanted. I am unclear as to the purpose of this item, Griffin says it is a cube that you carry with you in video games. So I said, oh, like a security blanket when you play? Nope, more like a virtual friend. The cube is actually an image that appears within the game, not in real life. Until now. Now Griffin will be the envy of all of his friends, as he now has his very own, non-virtual knitted companion cube. Enjoy it, and remember that we have a test on Monday.