I Love Cuttlefish

A number of years ago, I was introduced to cuttlefish at the Dallas World Aquarium. The exhibit at the time was of Common Cuttlefish (I have read that they currently have Flamboyant Cuttlefish - these tiny purple iris-flower-looking beasties) and I kind of fell in love. As awesome as the whole DWA is, the cuttlefish remained my favorite memory.

So when I saw a pattern for a knit cuttlefish... well, you can guess where this is going.

Yes. I knit a cuttlefish. His name is Cuddy, the cuddlefish. Cause he's soft and cuddly. Cuddlefish! Ha! I'm so funny.

Ahem. So yeah, I kind of love it. He's the biggest stuffed animal I've made so far. John the Chameleon was about 4" long, Victor the Vulture was like a ping pong ball with a head. Previously, Gilly the Guinea Pig was my largest knitted softie (that I've kept for myself) at about 5" long. Cuddy here is a massive 9" long and 6" wide at his widest point. (No, those fins don't make you look fat.) Fortunately, I chose not to make the grasping tentacles that cuttlefish use to snatch their prey so Cuddy is unable to eat Gilly. Gilly is much more relaxed about life now.

The project was actually a decently complex knit. Nothing too hard but I definitely had to pay attention. Of course, the challenge was compounded by the fact that there were a few errors in the pattern. The internet has lots of different versions of errata for it, so I thought I'd add my own since I took a slightly different approach to the issues.

Errata:
p4: Row 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 should not include ‘w&t’
p5: Row 9-23 ‘k’ and ‘p’ have been switched. Continue in stockinette.
p6: Row 21 should state ‘P25’, not 'P27'
p7: Row 22 should read ‘K9, SSK, K2tog, SSK, K2tog, K9’. Stitch total is 22, not 24.
p7: Round 4's stitch count should be 26, not 20.
p8: Because of incorrect stitch count at the top of p7 (22 sts instead of 24), Round 1 should instead be 'K9, K2tog, SSK, K9, K28. [48 stitches]'. With this correction, all further stitch counts are correct.
p11: Round 4 should read ‘KRL’, not LR

The project is here for those interested.

While this wasn't the easiest knit, it was quite satisfying. I'm actually sort of tempted to make a tiny purple one (like a Flamboyant Cuttlefish) but if I do it will have to wait until I've finished the socks I started on yesterday and maybe a sweater I'm thinking of making. And maybe half a dozen other projects I want to knit next.

Speaking of upcoming projects, the socks I'm working on right now are for Dan. Naturally, they are orange.