Oops! Apparently I've accidentally deleted all of my images. I'll see about fixing that soon.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Teeny Tiny Turtle

I've been wanting to try my hand at Amigurumi for a while and I've found a couple of free patterns online that I thought would be easy enough for a beginner like myself to try out.

In case you don't know what Amigurumi is (I hadn't heard of it until a few years ago) here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Amigurumi (編みぐるみ?, lit. crocheted or knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.[1] Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features,[2] as is typical in Japanese culture.
I decided to start with this super cute turtle pattern.

I found this pattern over at Crochetville



Well, I couldn't find my small stash of yarn and I'm pretty sure I didn't have the right weight anyway, but I did have this cotton crochet thread that I had used to make some doilies a few years back and a selection of very small crochet hooks.


I know it's hard to see here, but the hook reads 9/1.40MM which is waaaaay smaller than what the pattern calls for. Typical me.... lol

The shell/body

I started with the shell portion. It was easy enough getting started, although I'm sure my stitch count was off.  When I got this far last night and stopped, my husband declared that it was "finished!" as clearly the turtle had pulled his head, legs, and tail inside. LOL

Turtle head

By the time I finished the head my fingertips hurt. That tiny crochet hook certainly has it's drawbacks...  I took a little leftover green thread from the end of a bobbin and stitched on some eyes.

A turtle tail and four tiny turtle legs

Stitching the whole thing together was a bear, not because sewing it together was difficult, but because it was hard to see if things were lined up right or not. It was totally guesswork.  I'll simply declare that he's forever tilting his head inquisitively.

Finished Teeny Tiny Turtle

I have him tied to a bobby pin and stuck into my hair. Not really sure what else to do with him. I like how spirally his shell turned out even though I did him all in a single color.  This was a good start and I look forward to doing another in the future. Though perhaps I'll try a larger hook next time haha

Also....

We took a bunch of old clothes and stuff over to the Goodwill store for donation yesterday.  I don't know about you, but I really really have a hard time getting rid of stuff that I've made.  So I have years of little things that I'll never wear again, but that I've just not had the heart to get rid of.  Granted it's a very small pile, but with space at a premium and not wanting to be a hoarder, I figured I should go for it now while I have the courage.  

Anyhow, I took a quick (really poor) snapshot of each of them before I bagged them up. 

Skirt I made from jeans in high school? college?

drawstring cargo jeans I made 6 or 7 years ago


Simplicity 3842 which was easy to make but never flattered me

one of my favorite old label attempts
3 polyester shells I made for interviewing the summer after college

 Well, I guess that's about it. Hope your week is going well!

4 comments:

  1. ok this little turtle is too cute! Aunt Lydia did a lot of crocheting with a needle that size. When you said it made your finger tips hurt I wondered if that is why she had something wound around the handle portion of her needle?

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  2. Actually, as much as I'd love one of the ergonomic crochet hook handles, my fingertips hurt from the actual tip of the hook. Poking it through loops that tiny and keeping the stitches as tight as possible meant bracing the stitches against my fingers, inevitably poking my fingers with said crochet hook tip.

    PS: I love that Aunt Lydia was 'making' her own more ergonomic handle before they were commercially available. :)

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