{"id":20854,"date":"2020-10-23T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=20854"},"modified":"2023-01-14T22:06:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T03:06:53","slug":"tortoise-crochet-patterns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/tortoise-crochet-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortoise crochet patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>*Cue the fanfare*<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Please allow me to present&#8230; the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/shop\/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&#038;search_in_description=1&#038;keyword=tortoise\">PlanetJune tortoises!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=11_22&amp;products_id=376\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoises.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern and Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/images\/planetjune_tortoises_crochet.jpg\" data-pin-description=\"Crochet patterns for realistically-shaped life-sized tortoises with a beautifully\u00a0patterned shell or a simplified one-piece shell.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m so excited to be able to share my tortoises with you today! I have so much to tell you about them, though, I don&#8217;t know where to start&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll limit myself to the relevant pattern details today, and do a follow-up post later to share the long history of this design and my inspiration, and why my tortoise has been the most challenging (and eventually satisfying) pattern I&#8217;ve ever written!<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so what you&#8217;re looking at above is actually <strong>two<\/strong> patterns:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Top row: <strong>Tortoise<\/strong> <em>&#8211; the main crochet pattern<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Bottom row: <strong>Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin<\/strong> <em>&#8211; the expansion pack<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is an Expansion Pack?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right; padding-left: 10px;\" src=\"\/shop\/images\/expansion.jpg\" alt=\"Expansion Packs by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An Expansion Pack is an add-on to an existing PlanetJune pattern.<\/li>\n<li>The Expansion Pack lets you <em>modify<\/em> or <em>add to<\/em> the original pattern to create something else.<\/li>\n<li>You <strong>cannot<\/strong> use the Expansion Pack alone &#8211; you <strong>must also purchase the original pattern<\/strong> in order to be able to complete the pictured items in the Expansion Pack pattern.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Between the two patterns you can mix-and-match to customize your own perfect tortoises (and freshwater turtles and terrapins). Let&#8217;s look at them in more detail:<\/p>\n<h2>About the Designs<\/h2>\n<p>Both the patterns make amazingly realistically-shaped life-sized tortoises. They are about 8.5&#8243; (21.5cm) long from nose to tail. Of course tortoises start life much smaller than this, and just keep growing and growing throughout their very long lives, but I settled on this size as it looks and feels just like a real pet tortoise!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise1.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These are an ingenious low-sew design &#8211; the only sewing you have to do in the <strong>entire<\/strong> project is stitching the back legs to the body (and those joins will be hidden by the shell, so you don&#8217;t even need to do tidy stitching to get a perfect result).<\/p>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise4.jpg\" alt=\"Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" \/><\/h2>\n<p>All the tortoises have separate upper and lower shells which are stretched over a fully-enclosed smooth stuffed amigurumi body. This gives a perfect finish with no worries about stuffing leaking through anywhere, and a satisfyingly solid result.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoises3.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern and Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And they are just so realistic! Once you&#8217;ve crocheted the shells together over the body, your tortoise&#8217;s head and legs will look like they&#8217;ve just popped out of his shell so he can go for a walk or find some lettuce to munch. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<h2>Tortoise Crochet Pattern<\/h2>\n<p>The main tortoise crochet pattern has a realistic patterned upper shell made of 13 shaped segments that are crocheted together into a 3D shape that perfectly matches the shape of the body beneath.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be intimidated, though: you\u2019ll be working in a join-as-you-go method: crocheting one piece, then crocheting it together with the previous piece(s) to build up the shell, so you never have more than 2 pieces to confuse you. Every step is clearly set out with explanatory annotated photos so you can match what you&#8217;re doing to what you see in the photos.<\/p>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise2.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern by PlanetJune\" \/><\/h2>\n<p>The lower shell is also realistically shaped and crocheted in one piece so it&#8217;s fast and easy to complete.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise3.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As there&#8217;s such a lot to this pattern, with 18 pages and over 70 step-by-step photos (with over half of those being for the upper shell!), I&#8217;ve released it as <strong>separate right-handed and left-handed editions<\/strong>, so you can choose your version before you checkout, and the photos will all correspond to <strong>exactly<\/strong> what you&#8217;ll be seeing at every stage. I&#8217;ve only done this with ebooks until now, but this pattern is special in more ways than one!<\/p>\n<h2>Simple Shell Tortoise, Turtle and Terrapin Expansion Pack<\/h2>\n<p>This Expansion Pack includes all the modifications required to crochet a Tortoise much more quickly, with a simple but well-shaped one-piece top shell with or without a contrast trim. This is a simpler and more beginner-friendly option, but still has that realistic tortoise shape throughout!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise6.jpg\" alt=\"Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This Expansion Pack also includes modifications to turn the Tortoise into a (freshwater) Turtle or Terrapin with a pointier nose and pale-coloured lower shell. All these modifications are mix-and-match, so you can make Tortoises, Turtles and Terrapins with the geometric or simple shell style, with either head shape, with or without the contrast trim on the top shell and with a pale- or self-coloured lower shell.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples, so you can see the different options in the Expansion Pack:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoise5.jpg\" alt=\"Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" \/><br \/>\n<em><strong>Left:<\/strong> Pointed (turtle\/terrapin) nose; single colour upper shell; contrast colour lower shell<br \/>\n<\/em><em><strong>Right:<\/strong> Rounded (tortoise) nose; upper shell with contrast-coloured trim; matching colour lower shell<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Colour Choices<\/h2>\n<p>For any of the tortoises, you can stick with muted &#8216;natural&#8217; colours to match the shades of a real tortoise, or get as creative as you want! A brightly-coloured tortoise (like my magenta-and-mustard example) looks vibrant and cute, and would make a lovely decoration for a baby&#8217;s room, or a perfect toy for any child. There are no wrong choices when it comes to amigurumi tortoise colours. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tortoises2.jpg\" alt=\"Tortoise crochet pattern and Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Buy Now &amp; Launch Discount<\/h2>\n<p>Don&#8217;t you <strong>need<\/strong> these tortoises in your life right now?! If so, pick up the patterns with these links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=11_12&amp;products_id=374\">Just the standard Tortoise pattern<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=11_22&amp;products_id=376\">Tortoise and Simple-Shell Tortoise, Turtle &amp; Terrapin expansion pack <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=11_33&amp;products_id=375\">Just the Simple-Shell expansion pack<\/a> <em>(but remember, you can&#8217;t use it without the Tortoise pattern!)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Or, if you&#8217;re not ready to make them just yet, add them to your Ravelry queue or favourites so you don&#8217;t forget about them:<\/p>\n<p>Tortoise: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/badges\/redirect?p=tortoise-12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/api.ravelry.com\/badges\/projects?p=tortoise-12&amp;t=.gif\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Simple-Shell Tortoise etc Expansion Pack: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/badges\/redirect?p=simple-shell-tortoise-expansion-pack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/api.ravelry.com\/badges\/projects?p=simple-shell-tortoise-expansion-pack&amp;t=.gif\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And for <strong>one week only<\/strong>, you can take an extra 50c off the price: add the Tortoise <em>or<\/em> Tortoise + Expansion Pack pattern(s) to your shopping cart, and enter the discount code <strong>LETTUCE<\/strong> at checkout! (Offer ends Thursday October 29, 2020.)<\/p>\n<p>I hope you love my tortoises as much as I do!<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget to tag me (I&#8217;m <strong>@planetjune<\/strong> everywhere) when you&#8217;ve made yours \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Cue the fanfare* Please allow me to present&#8230; the PlanetJune tortoises! I&#8217;m so excited to be able to share my tortoises with you today! I have so much to tell you about them, though, I don&#8217;t know where to start&#8230; I&#8217;ll limit myself to the relevant pattern details today, and do a follow-up post later [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crochet","category-patterns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22794,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20854\/revisions\/22794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}