12-26-2016

Well, most of the Christmas crafting is done, except one pair of mitts. Time to pick this back up and hopefully finish in time for the twins Dec. 30 birthday. I had one turtle crocheted except for the trimmings and the other head, feet, belly and shell done. Today I am sewing the first one together and putting a wire armature in it. So far, so good. I will be using Beth Ann Webber’s wire armature tutorial, except that I use one wire to go across both arms and through the body.

01-02-2017

Slowly but surely they are coming together. I missed the girls’ birthday, but they are going to have their party later in the month, so hopefully I can finish in the next day or two.

I just sewed the feet on #1. He is looking so cute. I realized that there is a second piece to the shell, so I need to find the tan yarn again. I have the head and one arm crocheted and most of the body for #2. I think I’ll work on the shells and red and orange bits. I need to be fresh to make the armature.

01-06-2017

I put in a couple of hours today and got quite a bit done. I crocheted the rim around Michaelangelo’s shell. It was supposed to be two separate pieces but I slip stitched it into every other stitch as I went. Then I went back and sewed the open spaces with a needle. It turned out great. I also got it attached and put Raphael’s body and leg armature in and stuffed the body and head.

01-06-2017

I got the camera out and hand some fun posing the turtles this evening. Rafael is getting really close to done.

I used this pattern for the eyebrows.

01-07-2017

I finished crocheting the second shell today and doing the stitching between the shell and rim. I also made the last arm. I am ready to see these guys finished!

01-13-2017

I will get these guys done! I will get these guys done!

Actually I did do a little today. I sewed Raphael’s breastplate on and made his mask. I need to make a big effort tomorrow and see how much I can get done. Who knows, maybe I’ll even sew on his feet before bed?

01-13-2017

And he has feet!

01-14-2017

Michelangelo has a face. For the most part I’m pleased with it. I wish the left side of his mouth was a smidgen longer. I’ll try to be more careful with the next one. I wound up using punch needle yarn for his features.

For the mouth sides I chained 8 and did 7 sc. Then with the tail I did 5 more sc in the center of the convex side.

The eyes were a magic ring with the yarn held double. I did 6 sc and then did another partial row of 3 increases. I crocheted the second row going the other direction for the left eye. I chained 5 for the eyebrows.

I’m thinking about sewing clear plastic snaps to their hands so they can hold their weapons and pizza.

01-17-2017

I’m getting closer! Michelangelo needs a face and armbands. They both need a belt and weapons. And then I’m done. I would have kept going tonight, but my hand is hurting and the crochet hook and one of the armbands disappeared. Into thin air! I’ll hunt them down tomorrow. Hopefully.

01-19-2017

I got Rafael’s face done yesterday. They are both done except for their belts. Wouldn’t you know it I can’t find the brown yarn I want to use. I have looked high and low. I may have to just use a different color and maybe change them when I get some brown. Grrr…. I still need to do the weapons too, but I wanted to use the brown for the handles.

01-19-2017

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I didn’t find the brown yarn I was looking for, but I noticed some brown Purr-fect Punch yarn in my stash and was able to locate that. I Navajo plied the thinner yarn and it worked great. Two belts done and one set of nunchucks. Hurray! Of course, in looking at images of the turtles to see how to make Michaelangelo’s weapons, I saw that Raphael often has two sets of nunchucks unlike what is shown in the pattern. Sheesh!

I basically used this pattern for the nunchucks because it looked easier. I made mine a bit shorter.

01-20-2017

Done! I got all the weapons finished tonight. I am convinced that a person can crochet just about anything.

For the sais I used two pieces of pipe cleaner, one folded in half for the center knife and one with the ends bent back about 3/4” for the two side ones. I covered that one by chaining 20 and doing three rows of sc. I used the grey punch yarn Navajo plied and a D hook. I wrapped it around the pipe cleaner and stitched it on. For the center knife I chained 12 and sc three rows. I wrapped it around the pipe cleaner and stitched it on. Then I folded the longer piece in half and put the center one in between the two halves and stitched them together along the handle tightening the handle as much as I could.

For the brown I used two strands of the punch yarn and a #5 steel hook. Ch 6 and sc rows until it will barely wrap around. Stitch it on.