I was sad to hear of the passing of Paul, octopus and soccer prognosticator, and wanted to note his remarkable place in World Cup history.

To that end, I perused the amigurumi offerings on my bookshelf and found myself thumbing through a book titled tiny yarn animals by Tamie Snow, creator of the now defunct RoxyCraft.com. On page 57, I found an octopus, that embraces the amigurumi aesthetic and looked as though it would be a lot of fun to make.

Maize colored Red Heart Super Saver yarn at my side and 4.0 mm Clover hook in my hand, I got to work. Everything went swimmingly (it is an octopus after all) until I read the directions carefully.

The instructions, as written, directed the reader to work rows 7-16 in the same manner, after which the reader is then directed to work rows 14, 15, and 16, in another manner entirely.

A cursory search of the internet resources offered no clarification. Should the directions for rows 14, 15, and 16 have been labeled rows 17, 18, and 19, or should the directions given for rows 7-16 have read 7-13? Based on my examination of the photo of the octopus that was featured in the book, I decided that the directions given for rows 7-16 should have read 7-13. I don’t know that my determination was correct, but the result was pretty cute:

Although Tamie Snow has set aside crochet design for the time being to attend to family life and health concerns, her website has a lot of useful information for the amigurumi enthusiast as well as patterns for purchase and patterns that are available for free.

As for Paul the octopus, I like to think that had he been given the opportunity, he would have picked the crocheted soccer ball I made to commemorate the 2010 World Cup:

Related post: How to make an African Flower crochet soccer ball