Tortoise

The answer to my question "What am I knitting?" was Tortoise. Sorry for not answering the guesses, but I thought it would stop anyone else guessing if I printed the answer. 

This knit has taken me ages, far longer than the amount of wool knitted warranted.  First there was all the research into finding the most tortoisey coloured wool. I have quite a limited range of wool shops, so in the end bought mail order from LoveKnitting. (Rather frighteningly easy. I am going to have to keep myself in check.) The wool arrived very quickly and beautifully packaged. It is 50% wool 50% linen, and has a very nice feel. I don't usually recommend a  particular wool, but usually I just suggest a ply. But for this pattern as there are so many interconnecting patches in the shell, I think just picking any wool may not work. But I would love to hear if you have success with another brand of wool, and if you can find one that is tortoisey.

Then there was a huge amount of looking at tortoises. As is nearly always the case when I start to study an animal, it turns out that there are a huge number of varieties of tortoise. I wanted to make my knitted tortoise as realistic as possible, but as there are so many types I had to simplify a little. I guess what I am trying to say is that it is all a bit of a balancing act. Trying to be realistic, against what is possible from wool and knitting.

So the shell of the tortoise is made from individual pieces, stuffed and patchworked together. They are a little like hexipuffs, but they are knitted with a top and bottom and seamed around the edges, as this was the best way to get the different shapes needed. (Did you know that the proper name for the upper shell of a tortoise is a carapace?)  I had knitted my first version of the top, which looked very flat, rather as if my tortoise had had an accident with a steamroller. Surprisingly my son (the maths whizz), who does not normally take a lot of interest in my knitting, gave me some great advice on how to reshape some of the sections to make the shell curve automatically when they were sewn together. 

The other part which caused me quite a lot of reknitting was the head - four versions in fact before I got to the final one.  It started off looking far too much like a bird of prey, and the next time rather obscene, which caused quite a bit of hilarity in my family and some rude nicknames for the tortoise .... But I am happy with how he turned out in the end. 

I am still checking the pattern, but it will be out very soon. I'm also hoping to introduce my tortoise to some real ones, so there may be some more photos next week.

Just a reminder that you can still to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for April. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.