Lady Turtle’s Fancy Shell

NOTE: To be clear, I did NOT design this pattern. The pictured result is mine, but the info above links to the designer’s original pattern. Check it out!

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The Lady with the Fancy Shell

Meet Lady Turtle, my second amigurumi turtle. You can call her Lady for short, but not Little Lady. (I tried that but she didn’t like it.) I picked this pattern because I really liked the way the turtle shell looked: both the shell’s shape and the floral decorations on top. Looking at my final product, her shell is indeed my favorite part. I love it!

Tracking PDF Pattern Progress

I worked on this pattern from the PDF on my phone. At first, I was having a hard time keeping track of which round I was on, but then I tried the comments feature! This is one of the big discoveries this project sparked.

When I got to a new section of the pattern, I added one comment for each round (R1, R2, R3…). Once I completed each round, I clicked on the check mark to “resolve” the comment. At one point, I figured out how to highlight the text of the pattern, so the highlighting was linked to the text I needed. But then I forgot how to do that and went back to the squares you see in the screenshot.

I’ll definitely keep using comments to track my progress on PDF patterns. And I’ll re-learn the way to highlight the pattern’s text. (Newfangled technology?)

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Pattern Notes

The PDF download contains two separate turtle patterns: one small, one big. I made the small one. The beginning of the small turtle section says to crochet using two strands of yarn, but I didn’t do that for the shell. I did use two strands for the head, tail, and legs because the yarn for those parts was finer than the yarn in the shell. The pattern includes little leaves, but I skipped that part.

This pattern contains fewer directions than the patterns I’m used to. Here’s an example of what I mean: the materials list doesn’t include stuffing, and the pattern never tells you to stuff the shell or head. (I almost crocheted an empty shell shut!) There are also some non-standard abbreviations: “sc inc” is a single crochet increase, but “sc in” is a decrease (sc2tog). The difference between “inc” and “in” tripped me up a couple times. Only because of things like that, I might not recommend the pattern for folks new to crochet and/or amigurumi. Crocheters who are comfortable taking a pattern and running with it will be fine.

Turtle Shell

The fun begins! The pattern doesn’t specify how to end each round, so I chose to work in a spiral since that was something I wanted to try after my first amigurumi turtle. I marked the first stitch of every round so I could keep track of each completed round without getting confused. I liked working in a spiral better.

For some reason that I haven’t figured out, crocheting the shell was extra hard on my hands. I had to take more frequent breaks than usual, which I thought was weird since this was the largest yarn and hook I’d used in a while. My tension was tight, but I didn’t think it was that tight… My hands were happy to finish it!

I mostly followed the instructions, except for making it smaller by skipping the last round of increases and the first round of decreases (rounds 9 and 17, respectively). I really, really enjoy how adaptable crochet is as a craft.

When I got to round 16a, I couldn’t make sense of the ssp abbreviation (for “stitches space”), so I just did sc instead of ssp and it turned out great. For the first half of repeats, I forgot I was supposed to work in the front loop only. Instead of pulling those stitches out, I seized the opportunity to compare how each option looked and why a designer might opt for one over the other. (Anything to avoid ripping out work, right?) You can see the difference:

Working in the front loop made it easier to place the stitches in the next round, but I don’t think the two sides are noticeably different in the finished product.

For round 16b, I used a tutorial to remind me how to do a back post single crochet. I haven’t done many projects with post stitches, and I always forget which direction is which. It was fun to do something different! Seeing how rounds 16a and 16b come together to create the ruffled edge was cool.

I almost didn’t realize I needed to stop and stuff the shell until the last few rounds. That’s when I switched to making the flowers, because I wanted to sew them onto the shell before it was stuffed. I thought it might be easier that way. So with my almost-done turtle shell in tow, I worked the flower and limbs (storing them inside the shell for safekeeping).

Flower(s)

I ran into trouble trying to make the flowers. The pattern has directions for big and small flowers, but I couldn’t figure out either one. I saw some project pictures on Ravelry where other crocheters had beautiful flowers, but alas. I was missing something. The petals wouldn’t form and I kept ending up with extra chains left over. I tried three flowers with different stitch repeats before giving up.

But here comes the good part: designing my own flower! I called an audible and changed the color at the last minute, which made the shell pop. I wrote a pattern for the flower, which took about 20x longer than crocheting it… So, to see how I made this flower, check out the pattern!

I blocked the flower to give the petals more definition, but it only took a few turtle hugs for the flower to lose its shape. What good is an amigurumi without hugs?

Legs

My other exciting discovery was realizing how to work with two strands from the same skein at once. No cutting required! This happened to be a center-pull skein, so I used the outer string as my second strand. This made me feel pretty darn clever!

There’s no stuffing in the legs, which I don’t love for this particular project. The flat legs sticking out from under the flat belly just leave me wanting a little more dimension from them. I think it looks odd to have flipper-like legs on a shell that looks like a land turtle’s. It’s still cute, though.

Here’s a view of the finished underside:

Tail

The tail is a short foundation chain with a double crochet cluster worked into it. I think the flat triangle is a cute idea and I like that the tail is understated, since the shell is the real focus of the piece.

Head

Like Soft Baby, Lady’s head is stuffed with cotton balls! I think the shape of her head is too flat in the front, but it would look gorgeous with a well-placed smile on it. I’m just not sure about embroidery, yet…

I’ve learned that I want my turtles to have strong necks. In my mind, that means leaving a sizable opening to crochet onto the closed body after the decreases for the neck. This project barely has a neck because the head is so round.

I put the safety eyes closer to the front of the face than the pattern says, to reduce the amount of empty space up front.

Sewing, Stuffing, and Finishing

Once the flower and limbs were complete, I came back to the turtle shell. First, I sewed on the flower. I lined up the center of the flower with the shell’s center and tied it down to keep it from shifting. Then I stitched around the center of the flower and around the inside of the bottom layer of petals. After that, I stitched down nine of the ten petals individually. What happened to the tenth petal? I don’t know, because I double-checked my work. Next time, I’ll triple-check.

Next, I attached the tail, legs, and head. Since the limbs were all flat, it was super easy to place them symmetrically. I used the scallops to help me center the tail and head.

Time for stuffing! I ran out of cotton balls while stuffing the shell, which means I’ve probably made my last turtle with cotton-ball-guts. There was a lot of room left, so I started looking around the house for soft things. I landed on a bucket of rags (mostly cut-up t-shirts) and that was that. I promise the rags were clean… Though I’ve heard rags can hold germs, so Lady probably has some germs in her tummy. I used two rags, but I should’ve added another because it feels quite under-stuffed.

After stuffing, I crocheted the last few rounds of the turtle shell section, which was difficult to do with the stuffing inside. Towards the end of the last round, I switched to doing slip stitch decreases instead of single crochet decreases. Fastened off, weaved in that last single end, and done!

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Take-aways for Next Time

I’m charmed by this darling Lady and have so many ideas bubbling for future designs. It’s definitely gonna take time to work through all the features I want to try.

• I want to make a turtle with crochet thread. I got this idea because I thought I might make the big turtle as well, but I didn’t actually want a big turtle. So I figured I could make it in thread (which I love working with).
• I swear, on my honor, that I will buy real stuffing before my next amigurumi project. No rags.
• I will also, definitely, certainly try embroidering a smile. I’ll be scared to mess it up, but it’ll be a starting point.
• The next turtle will have a strong neck!

I thank you for reading along! Now, I have to go break up an argument between Lady and her brother, Soft Baby. His rambunctiousness and her sense of elegant dignity don’t blend well!

— Kelsey