96) No Sew Socktopus

The Sock problem at our house is getting out of control! My "the mate for this sock is probably in the next load" pile has become a giant heap on my dresser with socks that have been waiting to be reunited with their mate for months. So on a hunt to find something to do with all these socks I found these cute little octopus sock creatures which seemed totally doable. So I gave them a shot!

 To make my socktopus I chose some socks from my pile that had fun patterns (like these striped ones.) I then tied off the toe of the sock. Next I stuffed some stuffing into the sock to form a little ball. I have made a few of these at this point and tried a few different kinds of stuffing (pollyfill stuffing, shredded paper and plastic bags) all of which worked fine but I think the polyfill stuffing seems to hold up best. After I had formed a good shaped ball I tied off the sock just underneath the ball. You could easily have sewn these too but the knotting works great and is so easy! Next I used a pair of scissors to cut strips into the toe and leg of the sock. This made some hair (because all octupi need hair right?) and tentacles for the octopus. Finally I cut out some white ovals from an old sweater and glued them onto the ball with tacky glue. I just added the pupil  with a black sharpie although you could easily cut them out of felt or fabric and glue them down. Each socktopus only took about 10 minutes to make and now we have a small family of socktopuses that the girls love to play with. And my sock pile is getting some what smaller. Now what to do with the rest of the socks...