Mini Big Head Turtle Crochet Along Part 2

Here's part two: we make the head and sew it on, finishing up your mini big head turtle! 

Head:

Round 1: 6 sc in MR. (6)

Round 2: inc x 6. (12)

Round 3: (2 sc, inc) x 4. (16)

Rounds 4-9: 16 sc. (16)

Embroider eyes over round 5 with 5 stitches between. Embroider mouth one row below eyes, centered between them.

 

Round 10: (2 sc, dec) x 4. (12) Stuff head only.

Rounds 11-16: 12 sc (12)

Finish off, leaving 12” of yarn for sewing. Fold neck so that the face is centered on the front. Use yarn tail to sew bottom closed and sew to turtle shell opposite the tail. The bottom of the neck is sewed to the front loops of Round 8 of the shell, then sew the neck to the shell for three rows on each side of the neck.

 

If your turtle tips forward when you set him down, push in the center of his underbelly and pull his feet out. If that doesn’t work, push his head back toward his shell. Putting the circle of plastic on top of the stuffing before closing up the bottom of the shell helps keep the bottom nice and flat and helps prevent this problem.

Mini Big Head Turtle Crochet Along - Part One

Here we go! Part one of the Mini Big Head Turtle Crochet-Along! 

Mini Big Head Turtle

By Elaine Okupski of

Penguin Place Crafts

 

Uses .7 ounce of worsted weight yarn and an F hook.

 

Abbreviations:

Dec: decrease

HDC: half double crochet

Inc: Increase

MR: Magic Ring

Sc: Single crochet

Sl st: slip stitch

TLO: Third loop only

 

Body:

Round 1: 6 sc in MR. (6)

Round 2: inc x 6. (12)

Round 3: (sc, inc) x 6. (18)

Round 4: (2 sc, inc) x 6. (24)

Rounds 5-7: 24 sc. (24)

Round 8 is worked in HDC rather than SC. Then Round 9 is worked in the third loop, giving a nice edge to the bottom of the shell.

 

Round 8: 24 hdc, sl st into third loop of next st. Chain 4, sl st in 2^nd ch, sc, hdc (tail made)

Round 9: TLO, beginning in same stitch as sl st of Round 7: (sc x 4, dec) x 4 (20) Stuff body.

To help your turtle with balance, you can cut a small circle of plastic (I save my lids from plastic containers such as sour cream and cottage cheese for this purpose) and place it at the bottom of your turtle

Round 10: (dec, 5-dc bobble, 2 sc) x 4. (16)

Round 11: (sc x 2, dec) x 4. (12)

Round 12: dec x 6. (6)

Finish off. Use yarn tail to close.

 Since this turtle uses less than an ounce of yarn, it’s a great stash buster. You can use even smaller amount of yarn by doing stripes or spikes.

For this Spike shell, I alternated dark and light colors, starting with dark for Round 1. For Round 3, I put 4 spike stitches evenly around the row (reaching down to the previous dark row). For the next two dark rows, I put centered the spikes between Round 3’s spikes. Likewise, the spikes on Round 7 were centered between those of Round 5. I also changed to the lighter color for Round 10 to make the underbelly and legs.

 

This cutie is alternating rows of red and a variegated yarn where the red is a pretty close match.

 

 

 

 

You can also embroider a block pattern on the shell with a contrasting color.

 

 

My First Crochet-Along: Mini Big Head Turtle

I've been thinking of doing this for quite some time now... and here we go... my first CAL! 

I designed this Mini Big Head Turtle because turtles are such good sellers for me at craft shows, and I have sold several larger turtles using the same big head/long neck look. I wanted something that would use up scrap yarn and work up quickly... and I think I got it! 

So, here are the details: 

On Monday, 2/20, I will publish part one - the shell 

On Thursday, 2/23, I will publish part two, the head and assembly.

If you share a picture of your finished turtle in your Ravelry Projects, linking to the pattern, or if you share your turtle on Instagram with the hashtag #minibigheadturtleCAL you will be entered in the drawing for PRIZES! 

Well, the prize is a free pattern from my Ravelry shop... or I can e-mail the PDF if you're not on Ravelry. But... for every ten entries, I will draw a winner, and you can make all the turtles your little heart desires! Well, until March 15. When the Ides of March is upon us, the prize portion begins. 

Can't wait for Monday's post to start? The full pattern is already up for sale in my Etsy & Ravelry shops! 

2023 Ami Book Challenge

 I saw a post on Instagram from Lemon Yarn Creations about her Amigurumi book challenge. 

The idea is to dive into your Ami book collection (or magazines, or even solo patterns if you’d prefer), and pick one pattern to follow each month!

You can join every month or only a few. It’s all about community and sharing our love for Amigurumi with each other. Help others discover new books and show your favourite designers how much you love their work

I'm in! 

For January, I pulled out my Unicorns, Dragons & More and made Cargo the Mushroom Fairy. 

For February, I'm working on a standalone pattern, Drianna the Dragon by Yarn Wave

March: I made the Cheetah from Animal Friends of Pica Pau

In April, I made Bruice the Beardie by Manic Yarn

In May, it was back to the books... I made this Walrus from one of my Zoomigurumi books: 

In June, I made Sassy the Sugar Glider, from the Cheerful Chameleon

In July, I made a cactus from my Amigurumi Cactus Book.

In August, I double-dipped, making Avocade toast from my Crochet Cafe book, and a cockatiel from a stand-alone pattern. 

In September, I made the frog from my Annie's Attic Patchwork Animals book: 

In October, I made carrots from my Whimsical Stitches book: 

November, it was back to stand-alone patterns. I made FoFo the Bull. 

I want to make another one... He's so cute! 

And, finally, in December, I made a pattern from a new book I received as a gift from my friend Joanna: Crochet Cute Forest Friends. 

Other standalone patterns I plan on making 

Dolly the Dragon

Onyx the Owl

Red Panda

Other books I'll be working from: 

Edward's Menagerie Dogs

Animal Friends of Pica Pau

Animal Friends of Pica Pau 2

Zoomigurumi 5

I still have 1 open spot for the standalone and the book.... I'm sure I'll be able to fill them when I look through my patterns! 

February Goals - Better Late than Never, right?

I didn't do all that well on my January goals... I had two custom orders from Etsy that kept me busy, so I didn't finish all the points on my January list... so I moved some over to February.  I didn't even get my February goals done until a few days into February... and then another week passed before I got to work on this blog post. 

Here are my goals for February: 

Finish Cargo the Mushroom Fairy - from January - DONE 

My #amibookchallenge for February - Drianna the Dragon

Make one Socksy Dachsie from my own pattern

10 Chicken nuggets - for upcoming craft shows

Publish Mini Big Head Turtle pattern - another leftover from January

Crazy Critter Challenge - choosing elements of project by chance - DONE

4 Butter lambs

Launch Crochet Along for Mini Big Head Turtle

Inventory yarn to clear crates for 3/4 craft show

Progress: 

For the Crazy Critter Challenge, I had four categories: main color, critter, accent color, embellishment

Colors I chose from - Red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink

Critters: lizard, bear, monster, puppy, turtle, snake

Embellishment: stripes, spots, mohawk, bumps, ruffle, eyelash yarn

For the main color, I got green.

For the critter: puppy

For the accent color: Purple

For the embellishment: mohawk

Okay, a green puppy with a purple mohawk... 

What I'm Planning for 2023

 My overall plans are the same old, same old... 

Work down my yarn stash... try to sell more than I make, to reduce my inventory. 

2022 didn't quite follow that plan... my inventory went up by 3.6% and my yarn stash has 73 more entries than last year, a twenty-pound gain. Just couldn't stay away from yarn clearance and garage sales! I saw a meme that said "I don't hoard yarn... I rescue it from garage sales and thrift stores." Yup. That's me! 

So, 2023 will be a year of transition. It will be my husband's first full year of retirement, and in December, when I am eligible to get Social Security, I plan on retiring also. I want to develop my crochet business a little more this year, doing more designing, being more faithful to this blog, and (gulp) starting a YouTube channel. I want to work on getting all of my inventory listed on Etsy, and stick to making more of my best-selling items and less crochet-alongs. I did a spreadsheet of items finished in 2022, and found that of the 42 crochet along projects that I made, only 13 sold. Comparing that to my stats for Ankylosaurus, it's pretty bad. I made 6 Ankys and sold every one of them! So, I want to focus on what I know will sell! 

This is a quick breakdown of my goals for January: 

First off, stay away from the yarn aisle (but I already messed up on this by doing a yarn rescue at the thrift shop... If you want to see what I picked up, check out my YouTube video. I did go into Joann Craft and didn't buy any yarn, so I should get points for that, right? 

While I am staying away from crochet along for now (unless I host one myself!), I am trying to participate in the #amibookchallenge on Instagram. The idea is that so many crocheters have books they purchased, but just haven't used... so the challenge calls for you to pick a book, pick a pattern, and make one new item each month. For January, I picked up my Unicorns and Dragons book and chose the Mushroom Fairy... stay tuned for a pic of the finished item. 

Restock - I want to pick a best seller in my higher price range and get it finished up and listed in my shop. First up, of course, is an Ankylosaurus (free pattern on Ravelry ) - since it's at the beginning of the alphabet, cute, a great seller, and just plain fun to make! 

 DONE! 

Paid Design - I would like to publish one paid pattern per month - I have so many ideas... I just need to work on them! 

Free Design - I would also like to get one free pattern on my blog each month, to increase blog traffic

Finish a skein - I will pick a skein of yarn and make stuff until the yarn is gone... for the first month, I picked a skein of blue DK yarn I got on clearance that was a tangled mess. I wound it neatly into a cake... I plan on making the ankylosaurus from this, using the pink yarn for the body, and blue for the shell. 

Blue helped decrease the size of the yarn cake! 

Scrap bag - I made up a scrap bag and want to use it up for fun little filler projects. First up, I'm using the blue at the lower left  for a baby axolotl (free pattern on YouTube by Fancy Lama)

1/13 - the bag is almost empty... 

There was an orange axolotl too, but he's already in the axolotl box. 

Done! 

Etsy - 4 new listings - I will be adding either new items that I've made, or older items that have been in inventory, but never listed on Etsy... the goal is to get everything in my inventory listed. 

1. the new Mini Big Head Turtles... I have six of them made up! 

2.

3.

4.

Okay, that's my January plan in a nutshell! Time to get crackin'! 

What I did in 2022

 Every time I finish a project, I make a notation in my day planner. I finish 30-60 items per month. So far this year, my lowest month was June with 32, and my highest month was April, with 83. 

This year was the first time I put all those finishes into a spreadsheet, to analyze the data a bit and help me plan for 2023. 

At this point, I have finished 530 items. Of those, 246 sold, 117 were put into inventory, and 84 were gifts (either a surprise gift with my Etsy order, a basket donation for a craft show, a donation to a local charity, or gifts to my grandchildren). 

I keep telling myself not to get drawn into crochet-alongs, because then I end up just putting the finished items into inventory. Of the 43 CAL items I finished this year, 13 sold, 2 were gifted, and the rest are still in inventory. I guess I should listen to myself! 

I sold 3 of the 6 items from this CAL. 

Items I made a lot of: 

Axolotls - I made 21, and over half sold. 

Butter Lambs - my Easter best seller - I made 28, and 26 sold

Mini dinosaurs - I made 14, 11 sold

Egg Scrubbies - my most common surprise gift for Etsy orders. I made 42 so far (and need to make two more tonight!) 

Forest Friends Pattern by Minigurumi - I can't keep these in stock... as fast as I make them, they sell! Same with mini hamsters - from the same designer. I've made 17 of them this year, and only have two in inventory, and that's just because I haven't had any craft shows since I made them! 

Monsters - I just play with freehanding monsters with my scrap yarn, and they sell pretty well. 

Whale & Orca Ornaments - the whale ornament is from Neogurumi and the Orca ornament is my own design. So far I'm at 30 for this year... and orders are still coming in! 

Baby Octopus - I've made a dozen, but only have four left. 

I made lots of snacks for outgoing orders... if I ship a dog, I make a bone. If I ship a cow, I add a bale of hay. Some critters get a little donut... others get an ice cream cone. I made at least 18 snacks for travelling critters this year. 

I'm going to take some time to look over the stats from 2022, and narrow down my focus for 2023 makes... I really need to step away from adding stuff to inventory, hoping that it sells, and focus on the stuff I know will sell!