This is a companion to Oddities.

Practical? I think not. Useful? Nope, not that either.

Amusing? That’s rather subjective, but I think so. An excuse to get a truly ridiculous drink, with a mountain of whipped cream on the way home from the plant store? Yup. Which is not something you can say for many knitting patterns.

But for some reason, I was recently beset with the urge to make some little knitted jellyfish. And when such an urge comes upon you, it’s best to just give in gracefully and get on with it. Because you won’t know any peace until you do. So while I can’t, in good conscience, suggest that you should knit these, I can totally sympathize if you find yourself suddenly unable to resist!

General information

This 22-page pattern includes directions for three different jellyfish, each available in two sizes.  It is tremendously detailed and holds your hand every step of the way. There are pages and pages of step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to expect as you work. It walks you through everything from cast on to shaping your jellyfish to wrangling your airplant.

The pattern is almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these, even if you’ve never knit a project like this before!

Skills & scope

The knitting on these is delightfully mellow. They’re worked in the round, they make sense in your hands as you’re working them (all the increases and decreases are nicely stacked up in a way that makes them easy to memorize), and they’re small enough you can have one finished in an hour or two.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The size of your jellyfish will be determined by your yarn and gauge and the size of the thing you tuck up inside it (the lid from one of those drinks that comes with a mountain of whipped cream is the best thing to use). Mine are between 3 and 4 inches across.

I recommend using fuzzy, laceweight yarn (one of the silk alpaca blends is perfect) knit tightly enough that you like the look of the fabric. You don’t need to match any particular gauge. As long as you’re getting a fabric you like, you’re getting the right gauge.

Some of my shells use one yarn, some use a second strand of fuzzy, lace-weight silk mohair blend as a contrast yarn. Each shell took less than 50 yards of each yarn. If you want to use beads, they need to be big enough to fit over whatever yarn you’re using (I used size 6 seed beads) and you’ll use somewhere between 50 and 100 beads per shell.

You can absolutely use scrap yarn for this.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a fabric you like with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker or bit of scrap yarn to hold stitches).

You’ll also want one or more air plants for the tentacles (fake is fine, though you will be able to water them, so real works well too), one of the clear, domed plastic lids that come on the sort of cold drink that gets a pile of whipped cream on top, and some thread to hold it all together (I like the ‘invisible’ nylon thread best). If you want to get creative and use something else for tentacles (tinsel? crochet? yarn scraps?) or the lid (pudding cup? yogurt container?) you can totally experiment and do that!