Say hello to my little friend

This is Henry the Octopus.

My friend Claire asked me to make him to hold the rings at her wedding.

I made up the pattern as I went along (writing plentiful notes), and I was so unsure that he was going to turn out alright that I also made a little pillow as an alternative in case my first original toy pattern turned out to suck.

I'm rather stunningly pleased, however. You see the well-dressed wedding octopus is wearing a dapper hand-knit tie in a cashmere-merino blend.

This is the bottom of Henry, just so's you can see how neat and tidy everything is. That ridge near the legs is where I bound off the bottom and the rest of the body together. The whole thing's worked in the round, so that's the only seam. It used some Koigu that I had lying around, though I had to emergency purchase an extra skein (that's why the right side of this picture seems like the yarn is lighter - it is!). He also has pipe cleaners in his legs, so they are somewhat moveable. That didn't work as well as I'd like: up at the top, the pipe cleaners can move around too much in the leg, so it doesn't hold its position as well as I'd wanted. I have some ideas on how to make it work, but didn't have too much time to fix it as the wedding is in three days! Talk about panic-knitting!

And here are my last socks for the Summer of Socks!

It makes my tenth pair since Jun 21. Not bad, though there are people participating who have made over 30 pairs in the same time! These seemed appropriate to end with as they're sort of autumnal and summery (surely there's a better word for that!). The pattern is just plain vanilla toe-up in Sunshine Yarns superwash merino (sock club colorway Fresh, which I bought a while back from ChickenKnits). That's Chowder, acting like a fool behind my feet.

And what will I do, now that the Summer of Socks is nearly done, and Henry is safely finished? Well, I won't say I'm not going to knit socks, but this is the next thing I plan to cast on: