Adapted from the Squid-A-Licious pattern to be hat size.

The finished thing is like an Ood. It’s like Admiral Ackbar. I believe it is a success.

CO 72. hat cuff 11 rows 2x2. 7 rows stockinette, increase per pattern, 10 rows before decreasing, decrease per pattern, when 4sts remain graft together.

8 arms - 2 20sts per pattern, 2 24, 4 28.

2 tentacles: CO 175, knit & purl extra CC rows, follow pattern x5, purl & knit extra MC rows at beginning and end of middle section, knit & purl extra CC rows before binding off. Makes tentacle 4.5 feet approx.

fins: pick up 24 along each edge (48 per fin), decrease every row per pattern.

So much sewing. Sigh.

Wow: even though the fins are on the same bigger scale as the body, the proportions are kind of goofy on the hat and it’s not as much like the toy as I was expecting. Almost certainly b/c it is not stuffed. But it is supposed to be a hat and not a headdress, so it’s okay. Adding the eyes makes it unmistakeably a squid. The eyes I made are much too small to be the same scale as the toy, but they’ll work well for the hat.

eyes: CO 48 (in a white heavy worsted I had lying around), k2tog one round, knit one round, k2tog another round; switch to black (bulky), knit 2 rounds, k2tog 1 round, which gets down to 6 and can bind off.

No, those eyes were too small. eyes redux: CO 96 in white, k2tog (48sts), knit a round (48), k2tog (24), knit a round, switch to black, knit 2 rounds (24), k2tog (12), knit 2 rounds (12), k2tog (6), pull yarn through, etc. Put another way: alternate decreases and even rounds in white, then do two even rounds to every decrease round in black. I kind of half-assed the stitching-down but it actually seemed to work really well and the double round of running stitch flattened down the crinkly bits that were inevitable in something unblocked and un-ironed.