Sound the Octo-Alert! It’s a Free Crochet Pattern to Make Tunip and the Vegimals

The Octonauts are very popular in our household and to be honest, I think it would have to be one of my all-time favourite kids show. If you don’t know who the Octonauts are it’s a popular cartoon show and books created by the Meomi duo. So who are the Octonauts, exactly? Well they are a group of animals (and vegimals*) whose mission in life is to “Explore, Rescue and Protect”. Basically, they explore the ocean and save any sea creatures along their journey. My boys find it really entertaining but I guess the best bit, is that it’s educational too. It teaches them a great deal about marine life and environmental issues.

*Vegimals…not exactly animal and not quite vegetable. These cute creatures are a mixture of both.

For my son’s third birthday he was keen to expand his Octonaut collection. The only Octonauts missing in his collection were Tunip and the Vegimals. Well, unfortunately, when I went to buy his present I couldn’t find the Vegimals anywhere! After some online research it seems the Vegimals are extremely difficult to source in Australia, so, I decided to make them instead. Granted, the boys can’t take them in the bath like their other Octonaut toys, but I think they sure look cute and they are pleased with them which is all that matters.

I decided to make Tunip (the leader of the Vegimals) and his purple friend, the larger one who appears frequently in the books. I am not sure of his name though, so if anyone knows what he is called be sure to let me know.

So here is the pattern and I hope you enjoy.

Tunip and the Purple Vegimal Free Crochet Pattern

Tunip

Body and Limbs – Blue and yellow yarn Aran (10 ply)
3.5mm hook
Leaf Hair – Green fingering yarn (4 ply)
2.5mm hook

Safety eyes or thread to embroider eyes
Small amounts of felt for facial details or extra thread if embroidering facial details
Small amounts of wire for feet (optional)
Stuffing

Gauge is not important for this pattern. You can adjust yarn and hook size as desired but keep in mind the size of the finished product will vary. With mentioned yarn and hook sizes my toys measure approximately 3.5 inches (9cm) height + hair.

Copyright

Please do not distribute or reproduce any part of this pattern without permission

Body

Work in continuous rounds.

Rnd 1   Using blue yarn and larger hook – work 6sc in Magic Circle (6)

Rnd 2   *sc in 1 st, 2sc in next st* around (9)

Rnd 3   sc in each st around (9)

Rnd 4   *sc in 2 sts, 2sc in next st* around (12)

Rnd 5   *sc in 3 sts, 2sc in next st* around (15)

Rnd 6   *sc in 4 sts, 2sc in next st* around (18)

Rnd 7   *sc in 5 sts, 2sc in next st* around (21) Change to yellow yarn

Rnd 8   *sc in 6 sts, 2sc in next st* around (24)

Rnd 9-12  sc in each st around [4 rounds] (24)

Rnd 13   *sc in 4 sts, sc2tog* around (20) If using safety eyes, put them in now. I placed mine between round 11 and 12 approximately 5 stitches apart.

Rnd 14   *sc in 3 sts, sc2tog* around (16)

Rnd 15   *sc in 2 sts, sc2tog* around (12)

Rnd 16   *sc in 1 st, sc2tog* around (8)

Rnd 2-3   sc in each st around [2 rounds] (6)

Rnd 4   *sc in 1 st, sc2tog* around (4)

Rnd 5-6   sc in each st around [2 rounds] (4)

Rnd 7-9 (one leaf only) sc in each st around [3 rounds] (4)

Fasten off, leaving sufficient yarn to sew leaves to the head.

 

The Purple Vegimal

 

Work body, legs, and arms as per Tunip crochet pattern, but replace the blue colour with purple. The purple Vegimal is also a bit bigger than Tunip so I used a 4mm hook for mine.

Purple Vegimal Hair

Use fingering (4 ply) yarn and smaller hook (2.5mm)

Work in continuous rounds until stated otherwise. Note – “base” refers to the stitches created in Rnd 7.

Repeat Row 9-13 five more times to make six petals in total. For the last petal omit Row 13 and instead work one sc in the last st of base.

Assembly

Now you are ready to assemble your Tunip and Purple Vegimal Amigurumi toys.

The wire is handy as it gives the feet more support, shape and allows them to bend. This was the first time I actually used wire in an Amigurumi toys and I am really happy with the results, but really it’s an optional step, so if you are not using wire you can simply go ahead and attach your feet as they are. These are the steps I used to add the feet with wire. I used a flexible wire bought from a crafting shop and wire looping pliers for shaping the wire.

Firstly cut a small piece of wire. Use your wire looping pliers to create a loop at one end of the wire. Check the size of the loop against the foot (Figure 1)

Figure 1

When you are satisfied with the wire’s shape, insert the wire into the foot (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Next insert the exposed wire through the bottom of your Tunip Amigurumi toy. (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Now using the long finishing tail and darning needle stitch the foot to secure to the body. I found it easier and neater to work through the outer loops only of the foot. (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Now to work the other foot. Once again, check the wire for length. Snip off any excess yarn (Figure 5). You can check the exact length by creating the loop first, then snipping off excess, but I prefer not to double bend my wire with pliers, so I just take a guess.

Figure 5

Using your wire looping pliers create a loop for the second foot (Figure 6).

Figure 6

Next insert the wire into the foot and seam it to the body, as you did for the first foot (Figure 3 and 4).

Figure 7

Hair

For Tunip’s leaf hair-do, I attached the longer hair leaf first in the centre of the head (Figure 8).

Figure 8

For the remaining hair pieces, I sewed 2 leaf pieces together before attaching to the head (Figure 9). Repeat for the last 2 leaf hair pieces, then sew the leaf pieces on either side of the centre leaf.

Figure 9

Finally, create the facial details by gluing small pieces of felt, or embroidery.

The Purple Vegimal is worked the same way as Tunip, apart from the hair. The hair piece is easier to attach as it’s only one piece. I only sewed half the petals down so some of the petals would stick up a little.

That’s it! Your tunip and Vegimal is complete. Hope you enjoyed this free crochet pattern.