My cross stitching journey continues, and the latest chapter was a memorable one for sure. Octopuses – or octopi – have a special place in my heart due to work related reasons and when I saw a cross stitch kit featuring an octopus, I didn’t think twice – I had to get it. Slowly but surely, I sewed through the design. It was probably the most exhausting and time consuming project I’ve worked on so far, and placing the final stitches tasted sweeter than ever. Here’s how my most recent cross stitching adventure went.

The contents of DIY cross stitch octopus kit

I bought this kit in TKMaxx, a discount store, for just £2.99. The set included everything I needed to cross stitch the blue octopus – a white, blank aida, assorted threads in various shades of blue and green, two needles, a threader, a plastic hoop and a leaflet with the diagram and cross stitching instructions and tips for beginners.

Starting with the largest colour

When I cross stitch, I like to work through the colours one by one, starting with the most dominant one. In case of this octopus design, it was the navy blue. It took me a few days to complete it! It was the most exhausting single colour to cross stitch of all the designs I have completed so far. It took me quite a few days to finish and I was relieved when I pulled the last few stitches. And after sewing just one colour, I could already clearly see the design coming to life!

Continuing with the blues

After completing the navy blue parts of the octopus – and taking a few days off sewing to recover – I moved on to the other shades of blue. It can be quite tricky to follow the design diagram when there are a few varieties of the same colour – the shades of yarn included in the kit usually aren’t a close match to what’s printed on the leaflet, and it takes some effort to determine which yarn to use. Eventually, I managed to match the threads to the colours in the diagram and started sewing. A few evenings later, the octopus gained another dimension.

Bubbles

Next, I moved on to sewing the bubbles with grey yarn. While the previous colours required lots of attention, cross stitching the distinct grey details was a pleasure. It didn’t take long to complete all of the bubbles.

Cross stitching green details

Next on my list was green thread and adding depth to the octopus’s tentacles. The colour nicely stood out from the blues, but it took me surprisingly long to complete – the pattern resembled Swiss cheese with lots of holes, and that meant having to carefully count stitches. But eventually, I managed to complete all of the green areas.

Final details

Finally, it was time to sew the remaining details. At that point, I was left with two shades of yarn – beige and light green. I closely studied the design, and to be honest – I’m still not sure if I got it right. I concluded that the beige thread should be used for the inside of the bubbles and the octopus’s eyes, and the green – for the spots on the tentacles. I made my decision and proceeded to sew. And soon, the cross stitch octopus was finished.

My thoughts about the octopus cross stitch kit

As I mentioned before, this design was the most exhausting of all my cross stitch projects. Large areas of the same colour felt endless – I had never been that tired of sewing before! However, I persevered and completed the project nonetheless, and the result is both cute and impressive.

As always, I recommend these assorted DIY cross stitch kits if you’re a beginner wanting to start cross stitching, or if you already have some sewing experience but want a project to work on without the need to splurge on supplies. £3 will buy you two skeins of yarn if you try to purchase all of the supplies individually, and with this kit, I got all the yarn on top of the tools for the same amount of money. So, if you like cross stitching – or want to try it for the very first time – consider getting a pre-assorted kit like this one!

Also see:

• DIY