Forkfull the Jellyfish
(or the Atlantic Northeast Christmas Tree Jellyfish Tutorial)
I invented this jellyfish ornament for a holiday swap in
2007. I named the pattern "Fork-full" for my late,
great, and incredibly crafty but not terribly
gastronomically adventurous grandfather, Ben, who once
snorted on hearing that my father had eaten jellyfish
while traveling overseas, "Hunh, forkfull of snot!" To spread
the holiday cheer further, here's the jellyfish ornament.
The yarn is Karabella Stardust - it looks like a
jellyfish just sitting on the shelf, so if you can find
it, you've got a head start. Stardust looks and feels like
a tube made out of a tutu, and has all the endearing and
not-so endearing qualities one might expect from knitting
with tutu yarn. Sparkly! Sweaty! Anything on the plasticky
side of the spectrum that says jellyfish to you will work
fine. The yarn wrapper calls for size 11 needles, and I
worked on 4 size 9 double-points. Here we go:
Cast on 10 stitches using the knitting-on method. Leave a
fairly long tail.
Bind off all but one.
Repeat this nine more times so you have 10 little
fringies.
Being careful not to twist, slip 4 of the stitches to a
second dpn.
Join as for I-cord and K2tog around, so you've got 5
stitches left and the fringies stick out.
Work 6 more rounds of I-cord.
Turn and Knit 1 round.
Being careful not to twist, transfer to three
double-pointed needles (2 sts on the first 2 needles, 1 on
the last).
Now comes the cap -
Round one: Knit into the front and back (kfb) of each
stitch.
Round two: kfb, k1 around
Round three: kfb, k2 around
Round four: kfb, k3 around
Round five : kfb, k4 around
Round six: kfb, k5 around
Round seven: kfb, k6 around
Rounds eight and nine: k
Bind off using the k2tog tbl, sl repeat bind off.
(Translation: knit two together through the back loops,
slip the stitch from the right hand needle to the left.
Repeat until only one stitch remains, and pull through.)
Sew in the yarn-ends, ending so that the ends come out of
the top of each and double as the tree-hanging cord.
p.s. Save the Pacific
Northwest Tree Octopus!