01
About this pattern
This pattern turns a simple granny square into a tiny underwater scene: a plump, wavy-bottomed jellyfish head with a sweet embroidered face, three curling tentacles, and a deep blue background that reads instantly as open ocean. It is worked in five colors, so it is a wonderful way to use up small leftovers from bigger projects. Anyone who loves character squares, sea creatures, or making blankets that tell a story will fall for this little jellyfish straight away
The techniques stay friendly throughout. The head is built in short rows of single crochet with simple sc increases and sc2tog decreases that shape the dome, plus a back-loop-only foundation row that keeps the bottom edge tidy. The tentacles are pure slip stitch magic worked along both sides of a starting chain, and the background is a classic granny square in double crochet with ch-3 corners. If you can chain, single crochet, and double crochet, you are ready. Expect roughly one to two hours total
The finished square measures about 3.46 by 3.46 inches in DK weight yarn, which makes it an ideal building block. The jellyfish sits slightly raised against the blue, so the piece has a lovely soft, appliqué-like texture you want to run your thumb over. The wavy slip stitch edge along the bottom of the head really does ripple like a real jellyfish bell. Made as a single square it becomes a coaster or a bag patch; made in multiples it becomes a nursery blanket people ask about
02
Variations
The five-color setup makes this square endlessly playable. For the classic look, keep the background dark navy or deep teal for that deep-sea feeling, and go pastel on the jellyfish — lilac, peach, or mint bell with cream tentacles. For a sunset-ocean version, try a warm coral head against a dusty rose background with gold tentacles. A metallic thread held with your bell color turns it into a bioluminescent jellyfish, which looks incredible in a nursery. Because the tentacle count is entirely up to you, add five or six for a fuller, drifting look, or leave just two for a shy little baby jellyfish. Positioning changes the personality too: tentacles swept all to one side reads as swimming, tentacles spread wide reads as floating and happy. Yarn substitution is simple. The sample uses DK sport wool with a 3.00mm hook and finishes at about 3.46 inches; move up to worsted with a 4.00mm hook and your square grows to roughly 4.5 inches, which is handy if you are matching squares from another blanket. Go down to fingering with a 2.5mm hook for a tiny brooch-sized jellyfish. You can also add extra granny rounds to the background if you want a wider blue border around the jellyfish, or skip the background entirely and use the head and tentacles as a standalone appliqué on a tote bag, a hoodie pocket, or a baby hat. Ocean-themed blankets love company, so consider making coordinating squares with the same background blue
I have made a lot of character squares, and this jellyfish is one of the few where the shaping does exactly what you hope on the first try. Working the head in rows instead of rounds means you can actually see the dome forming as the sc increases widen row 2 and the sc2tog decreases pull rows 4, 5 and 6 back in — no stuffing, no wrestling, no guessing. Then round 7 gives you that little sequence of slip stitches and ch-2 spaces along the bottom, and suddenly a flat oval turns into a bell with a genuine wavy skirt. That moment is so satisfying. The tentacles are my favorite part though: you chain eleven, work slip stitches into the back loops going one way and the front loops coming back, and the strip curls itself into a spiral without any blocking or coaxing. It feels like a small trick you have gotten away with. Add a face, two pink blush spots, and the whole thing goes from crochet motif to little friend in about thirty seconds
