A Cuddly Cactus

When a friend, who loves plants but is incapable of keeping them alive, has a birthday, cactus is a solution. But what to do when this same friend has killed multiple cacti before? Simple! Look up a tutorial on making a crochet cactus, be disappointed by what internet has to offer and develop your own pattern!

The aim of this instructable is to help you skip the last step:)

• yarn (size 2~2.5) in leaf green, light green (or beige), red, yellow and brown colour
• small clay planting pot
• Crocheting hook (size 3)
• needle
• (optional) stuffing cotton

Make a row of chinless double crochet foundation of 16 stitches. Alternatively you can substitute that for a chain of 18 stitches and double crochet back into them on the way back, starting at the third chain from the hook.

The following row starts to curl the crochet upwards (for cactus ribs). Chain 1 and flip the strip around. Now make the following stitches in the front loops of the chain:

• slip stitch
• 2x single crochet
• half double crochet
• 4x double crochet
• & reverse (do the same thing in reverse order)

Once again chain 1, flip the strip around and get ready to learn a new technique, which I haven't found anywhere before (though I doubt it's my invention, as it's quite simple). Make the same stitches as before but with one variant: chain them into the highest loop beneath the top chain. This helps to make chain more pronounced, making for a nice cactus rib. If you aren't sure what I meant by "the highest loop beneath the top chain", reference photo above. Correct loops are marked with yellow yarn while the top chain is threaded with pink.

• slip stitch
• 2x single crochet
• half double crochet
• 4x double crochet
• & reverse do the same 8 stitches in reverse order

If you thought the last step was hard, you're in luck. This step is straight from crocheting 102 class. Chain 2, flip the work around and double crochet into the front loop of the chain 15 times and that's it.

Nothing more. Just that. No, seriously. Do note though that first double crochet starts in the second chain because chain 2 (first bit in this step) counts as first double crochet.

And now for the second half of the valley "fold". Chain 2, flip the work and back post double crochet all the way through. Finish this round with a double crochet into the last hole of the previous row to keep the loop count constant. Alternatively you can double crochet into the back loop of the chain but the result will be a flatter cactus.

Repeat steps 2 through 5 six more times to get a seven ribbed cactus.

Go on, crochet away and I'll see you in a bit.

Now the joke in the title would make no sense if cacti had no thorns, so let's make them for our cactus!

Thread a light green yarn through a needle and sew it on the inner side of ribs as seen on photo above (I used pink yarn so it can be seen more easily). Make sure to thread it in such a way that it isn't visible form the outside.

Next pull the yarn so it makes about 5 cm (2") loops. Cut each loop and tie it with a double knot.

Now go to the outer side and use a crochet hook to pull one thread of each knot through stitches on the top chain (I marked them for you with pins). The remaining thread can be cut off.

When done, cut yarn to length and fray it up using a needle.

Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Judge for yourself:)

If you find this step too boring to repeat seven times in a row, you can alternate between this and next step for each rib of your cactus. Don't ask me why I thought of mentioning this:P

Stitches were designed to make the ridges as pronounced as possible but some sewing will go a long way towards making them even prettier.

Use the same yarn colour as you used for cactus body so that different colours won't be peaking through

Do a zig zag sew, so you can decide how tight you want it. Once happy with how pronounced the ribs are, tie yarn up and proceed to the next step.

You can sew your cactus the simple way or, if you want to it even prettier, you can tear the last round down and crochet the cactus together through chains of the first round. I found it the easiest to cut the yarn and tear the last round down afterwards. This automatically gives me enough extra yarn for what I'm about to do.

Chain two and pull this through the first chain of the foundation (pictured on photo 1).

Now you have to do the same as in step 5 but stick the crochet hook through the second chain of the foundation, then yarn over front loop of last round (remember that last-last one was torn down!) (photo 2).

• Pull up a loop (photo 3)
• pull through 2 and go through foundation chain (photo 4)
• pull through 2 (photo 5)
• Rinse and repeat.

What we are doing here is simulating a back post double crochet while connecting the two ends.

I used a pink yarn to illustrate what I was doing. Naturally you would use the remaining green yarn. If you got lost, in this step, just ignore everything I said after the first sentence and sew it together in a simpler way. My method is somewhat nonstandard but it yields a uniform cactus while standard sewing would leave spacing between ribs 1 & 7 bigger than the rest.

Once you flip the tube around, you might notice that the shape isn't quite right yet. Cacti aren't supposed to look like hollow tubes… Let's fix that!

Thread some green yarn through a needle and sew through bulges in the valleys as shown on photo above. Tighten it up completely. I find it the easiest to sew when flipped inside out but tighten it when facing outwards.

You'll notice at this point, that thorns look somewhat off at the top. That is because we're not done with sewing yet! Our cactus needs another sew on the top side. Thread more green yarn through two loops of each rib and tighten it up.

If you plan to add blossoms, you might want to put off the tightening until you have flowers in place.

If you feel like having a blossoming cactus, now is the time to add blossoms. I made mine by following this tutorial (it's in Spanish, sorry; I don't speak Spanish either, if that comforts you). I recommend you take a look at the video but here's what you need to do:

• magic ring
• chain 2
• 5x double crochet into the magic ring
• slip stitch into the top chain of the "chain 2" part
• single crochet into spaces between double crochets in counter clockwise direction, 6x
• sew together as shown in video

I made petals with yellow yarn instead of a plastic bead as used in video tutorial I referenced. A bunch of three flowers seems to work the best.

You might find your cactus to be a bit flimsy, just like mine. To help mitigate the problem, you can thread extra yarn through valleys of the cactus and tighten them up a notch. This will help make ribs more pronounced. Do it with green yarn. I used pink because, you know, it shows nicely on photos!

Some stuffing will help even further though it should be able to stand on it's own.

How big your ground plane is, depends on the size of your pot and thickness of your yarn (obviously). Pattern I provided below is designed for my pot size (5 cm high, 6 cm top radius, 3cm bottom radius), but you can adjust it to fit your size.

Throughout this step I will be using these three abbreviations to make it clearer:

• SC is single crochet
• SCinc is single crochet increase
• SCdec is single crochet decrease

Now on with the pattern:

• Round 1: 6x SC in a magic ring <6>
• Round 2: 6x SCinc <12>
• Round 3: 6x (SC + SCinc) <18>
• Round 4: 1x SC + SCinc, 5x (2x SC + SCinc) + 1 SC <24>
• Round 5: 6x (3x SC + SCinc) <30>
• Round 6: 2x SC + SCinc, 5x (4x SC + SCinc) + 2x SC <36>
• Round 7: 6x (5x SC + SCinc) <42>

If your pot is bigger or smaller, you can make more or fewer rounds in the same fashion. At this point I sew cactus to the ground, which is followed by

• Round 8: 42x SC <42>
• Round 9: 6x SC+SCdec, 2x (12x SC + SCdec), 6x SC <39>
• Round 10: 3x (11x SC + SCdec) <36>
• Round 11: 36x SC <36>
• Round 12: 5x SC+SCdec, 2x (10x SC + SCdec), 5x SC >33>
• Round 13: 3x (9x SC + SCdec) >30>
• Round 14: 30x SC <30>
• Round 15: 4x SC+SCdec, 2x (8x SC + SCdec), 4x SC <27>
• Round 16: 27x SC <27>
• Round 17: 3x (7x SC + SCdec) <24>

That was the last round when building soil volume. Stuff the "soil" with cotton or beans and close it up.

• Round 18: 24x SC <24>
• Round 19: 6x (2x SC + SCdec) <18>
• Round 20: 6x (SC + SCdec) <12>
• Round 21: 6x SCdec <6>

Now all that is left to do is to sew it shut.

Shove the cactus into a pot and feeewh... I know it took me a while to crochet the first and second cactus I made but this last one, which I made to document the process for instructables, took me a really long time.

If you have any questions, recommendations, ideas or grammar corrections;) , please share them in the comments below. And, if you liked my project, do leave a like and please vote for me in the knitting & crochet speed challenge!

I never expected to have won the grand prize in the knitting & crochet speed challenge but apparently jury and you, fellow makers thought otherwise! A sincere thank you for all of your support. See you in my next instructable!