A few weeks ago a (very good) customer of mine asked if I had a pattern to make a crochet turtle. After looking through my books and trawling the web for a bit, I had to admit that the only crochet turtle patterns I had/could find were rather overly cute and cartoony - not my 'thing' if you know what I mean.
But it set me to thinking about making a turtle......and I couldn't let it go. I've always liked turtles myself - in the past I have painted a huge one as part of a marine mural on my son's wall, and have quite a few pieces of jewellery in the shape of turtles as well as numerous stuffed turtle toys around the house.
So a couple of nights ago I started playing around with some green yarn, and after a few false starts, had a decorative shell made...which then needed an under layer to stop stuffing spilling through the decorative holes!
Last night I completed him and I'm pleasantly surprised by what is my first attempt at 'sculpting' my own design out of crochet. I may well try to do some more of this, it's fun! Although next time I will write down the pattern as I go instead of suddenly remembering half way through that it might be an idea to keep a record just in case I need to make more.......doh!
The zebras are progressing quite nicely - all sketching out is complete and one head is painted. I know a lot of mums dread the school holidays because they have to shelve their own plans while the children are home. Working in a school, it's the other way round for me - I love the holidays as I have plenty of spare time to get on with all these creative projects and my children are grown and able to entertain themselves!