Turtles were always a fav of mine, since I was 8 and my little brother and I adopted two box turtles who wandered into the garden.  However, they took on a whole new meaning to me when I started at the University of Maryland, as our mascot Testudo is, basically, a turtle.  Technically it is a diamondback terrapin (a species of turtle indigenous to the Chesapeake Bay watershed) but to-may-to, to-mah-to, right?

My social life in the fall is centered around Maryland football and tailgating.  So, when the previously mentioned bestie found out she was preggers, I wanted to knit baby something to bring to her first tailgate.  It's a very important milestone in one's life, after all.  So I set out to knit baby a Maryland colored tailgate blanket.

And then I found this guy (on KnitPicks): 

A knitting pattern for an absolutely adorable stuffed turtle AND he has costumes.  I fell in love immediately.

While my bestie was busy growing a baby, I was hard at work knitting my own labor of love.  And let me tell you, while adorable this little guy really tested my patience (much like a kid, I suppose).

I was incredibly daunted by this project.  It's one of the most challenging projects I've taken on so far.  Once I got started, I was deceived, as the turtle head and body are knit in one piece, and fairly easy to do.  (I opted for stitching his eyes instead of using plastic safety eyes, as it was intended for an under 3 year old.)  My biggest challenge here was keeping my stitches tight while sewing in the round in teeny tiny size 3 DPN's.  I have short, fat fingers, so sometimes I'm not the most nimble when using smaller needles. (As with any stuffed knit toy, you have to be sure your stitches are very snug, otherwise the stuffing sticks through.)

After the head/body are done, you knit up four legs.  This was quick and easy.  They then get set aside while you knit the rest of the turtle.  It's very important the legs go on in just the right spot, otherwise you can't fit the shell (or any of the costume shells you might make for him) on, so you have to wait until you have an idea of where on your turtle's body the leg holes in the shell will sit.   What I did - and often do on any project with legs - was sew on one leg using the cast on tail and a tapestry needle, then, with yarn still attached, stuck the needle all the way through the body and out on the other side (you have to squish the body together a bit to get it through), parallel to where the first leg was.  It helps to cross check by counting the number of stitches from the top of the turtle down the side to ensure you're in about the right spot.  My legs had loops along the cast on edge which I used to anchor the leg to the body.  I basically stitched it on and treated the loops like numbers of a clock, and sewed "12" to "6", then "8" to  "2" and "3" to "9".   I found this got the leg on nice and secure with even tension. 


The shell is knit in three pieces - a shell top and bottom which are sewn together and stuffed, then a shell attachment panel, designed to slide over the turtle's body like a shirt.  When first looking at the pattern what was most intimidating to me was the pattern on the shell, but that turned out to be the easiest part!  The part I thought would be the easiest, the shell attachment panel, was my biggest challenge.  I kept mis-counting the increases and decreases... had a few dropped stitches... it was a mess.  Baby almost got a naked turtle.  Then I slightly overstuffed the shell which made fitting the shell over the turtle's body a bit of an adventure.  Once I got the shell on the body, I used my DPNs to mark where the legs should go, and carefully slid the shell over the needles to start knitting on the legs.  Technically I was supposed to have connected shell top/bottom by crocheting and the shell and panel with an I-cord... but I went the easy route and just stitched it together using an invisible stitch.

Despite the challenges, it was great fun to knit up such a cute toy.  Once he was finished I really did have a hard time wrapping him up!  I keep thinking I'm going to need to knit myself a turtle of my own.

Now, I know what you're thinking... weren't you knitting a tailgating blanket for this kid?  Well, conveniently someone had devised a pattern for a baby blanket, complete with a pocket for the turtle to ride in.  I switched the colors in the pattern for red, black and white (UMD colors) using Jiffy yarn as it's a nice, sturdy, machine washable yarn, important to have in something knit for a little kid!  The blanket was a quick and easy knit with a ribbed border and body done in garter stitch.  The top and bottom borders are sewn along with the main body, then you pick up stitches on the sides to create the side borders.  My challenge was picking up the stitches on the sides as that is a technique I haven't used across so many stitches before.  Once I got the hang of it I realized that instead of leaving the corners open (to be mitered later), and only picking up along the main body, I picked up through both borders making for some really wonky corners.  Fortunately that was an easy fix!

Despite being my most labor intensive and challenging project yet it was so much fun to do and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  Now baby and turtle are ready for their first Maryland football game! (as for our head coach and team... well... that's debatable. :p)