Oh, Garth. He was a log of a turtle for a very long time. He was shell-less, legless, and left at the bottom of a knitting basket for a couple of years. The worst part is: his pattern and yarn were piled on top of him. Poor guy was being smothered by his future body parts and my procrastination. It's nightmare fuel, I tell you.
. . . . .
Garth the Turtle was meant to be a gift for a loved one-- my oldest nephew to be specific. When he was a baby, he used to purse his lips when he concentrated in a way that reminded me of a turtle. I wanted to give him a knitted friend on his first birthday.
I happily set forth on the task.
The pattern was picked (Sheldon by Ruth Homrighaus), the yarns were assembled (supplied by my existing stash), and a cute body was knit.
Then, the birthday came and went and my project remained unfinished.
. . . . . . . . . .
So Garth sat.
Shell-less.
Legless.
Stuck at the bottom of that basket...
Until Fall 2020.
The Reveal
Isn't he a cutie? Had I still been posting back then, y'all would've seen Garth when he was still getting used to his shell. He's settled in nicely now. A couple years will do that to ya. It also got him his name. I mentioned in my last post that I feel bad pre-naming plushies for others, but Garth is staying with me (for now) so I don't feel that way with him.
Pattern Changes
Be aware: I worked the Sheldon pattern a little differently to better suit for my vision for Garth.
First, I used Judy's Magic Cast-on to begin my knitting. This method is meant for some toe-up sock patterns. I use it on stuffed animals knit in the round because of how clean it makes the beginning of the project, especially if the cast-on edge is part of the animal's face.
It does take practice and patience to get used to, so use it at your own discretion! It's just how I prefer to start.
Next, Garth's shell was made in three colors. The original pattern uses the same color as the body to make the upper shell's background, its back piece, and the shell bottom, but I wanted more contrast.
This is simple enough to do, though; just substitute your new colors into the pattern where you'd like them. For Garth, I used Vanna's Choice "Chocolate" for the upper shell's background (CC in that part of pattern) and the back piece, Vanna's Choice "Snow" for the hexagonal contrast stitch (MC in that part of pattern), and Vanna's Choice "Fisherman" for the bottom shell. I made a visual to help show my color layout.
I also used an attached I-cord technique to join the upper shell to the bottom piece. It adds a nice detail to the shell edge that the original pattern doesn't have.
Like the magic cast-on method, an attached I-cord can be tricky to knit. There are plenty of tutorials available online for both techniques, so if the ones I linked don't work for your learning style, check out other videos/written tutorials available online.
Final Thoughts
I am quite pleased with how Garth turned out.
The Sheldon knitting pattern is one of my favorites, and I'll continue to use it for my knit turtle needs. Speaking of those: I've been thinking about making some turtles based on species that are native to my area. I like the idea of color-matching yarns and learning about different creatures so I can bring them to you as squishable knit creations. What do you guys think?
Those turtles will be a future project. For now, I am happy Garth made it out of the knitting basket. He did make a pretty cute log, though.
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