Turtle #1

Normally, I don't blog knitting which is about to be a present for someone. This time, I just can't help myself; this turtle is just delightful.

Other personal rules I've broken here:

• I don't make toys. Most of them are just too incredibly cutesy; and those that aren't are a bit disturbing...; this one just compelled me to knit him.
• I don't involve myself in any more sewing-up than can be helped and this tendency is increasing. There are 15 pieces to this thing, not including those little triangles you pick up and knit to finish the shell, once you've sewn the 7 hexagons together; and all the limbs need stuffing separately; and it's still delightful.
• I don't take finished knitting to KTog purely to wave it around; although sometimes I wear it so I can wave it around if anyone notices; this little chap was passed around the circle a couple of times tonight.

But the taking-to-KTog thing did have an ulterior motive. I didn't really want to be posing a turtle on Palace Green in front of the world's media, and that's the nearest stretch of grass I generally see while it's light; so I went to the Mill Pond to take a picture of this Pond Turtle. (Needless to say, nobody turned a hair.)

The shell for Turtle #2 is 6/7ths complete...

The pattern, by Carol Wood, can be found at her Etsy shop and provides far more enjoyment than anyone deserves for $6. You need 1 ball of Noro Kureyon, and 1 skein of Cascade 220 (I took a chance and bought 2 skeins for 3 turtles and I should be OK - each turtle takes about 60 grammes).

Fat Charlie is still on the needles, although he's getting there, and the Mystery Fair Isle just needs a button band making. I'm teaching a freeform knitting weekend at White House Arts on the weekend of October 18/19 though and really need to be concentrating my efforts on making more samples for it...

Turtleshell

After the third felting today, I think the top shell is about the right size. I'm hoping so, anyway - it's about an inch bigger all round than the bottom shell... I'll check that with the pattern writer though as she's both helpful and sympathetic to the tribulations of felting in a front-loader...

There are also feet. You can sort of see them here, but we're back to darker nights, and the glory of their little bobbly toes is hidden. Knitting with aran-weight yarn on 3.25mm needles isn't as bad as I thought it might be and you certainly get a fabric dense enough that the white British-Standard-Conformant toy stuffing isn't going to show through (if this were for me, I'd use any old fleece I had around, but these are probably going to tiny relatives who will stuff them straight into their mouths...).

Also managed to find some small-size safety toy eyes, too - I'm never totally confident of my ability to embroider on faces even after all that City and Guilds stuff...

Turtle-thwarted

Sometimes, these newfangled household appliances are just TOO good.

I found this brilliant pattern for a turtle on Ravelry, and because the author's in the US she has access to a top-loader washing machine with the options for looking-at-the-thing-while-it's-felting. We had a bit of correspondence back and forth, as you do on Etsy, because everyone's so friendly there; and I thought that This Time, I'd try the Delicates programme on my washing machine, but put the temperature up to 40 degrees. And I've been sitting here for the last hour trying to keep myself awake until it finishes... Here's what the half-shell looked like before it went in...



And it came out - and it looks exactly the same as it did before it went in. Damn, my Delicates programme is good. Next time I have a sweater which says Handwash, I will definitely put it in there...


But now, I'm so completely taken by this pattern that I need to wait until it comes out on the normal wash... which takes an hour and a half... gah.