The Mock Turtle

I've started 'Luisa Elephant' from Yan Shenkel's 'Animal Friends of Pica Pau'. Not much to see yet. I'm finding crochet with cotton yarn more of a challenge than I was expecting, as it has a tendency to separate like string. I need a pair of safety eyes before I can carry on, and my hand is sore. Pay no attention to the colours. Our printer is out of magenta ink, so the photo is too yellow, and the subtle blue/grey colour of the cotton yarn I'm using was lost on the phone's camera.

Looks pretty good! Cotton yarn can be an absolute bitch for splitting.

Some shitty pots that I made this weekend that still need firing and glazing. I have discovered that I’m not a natural potter.

I think they look fab! Well done.

I'll post whatever abomination I come up with tomorrow (first time go at pottery) to make you feel far, far better Hippy I think yours look great!

Those are excellent pots, Hippy! Looking forward to seeing them once they're glazed.

Love the elephant OTH! And yes, cotton can be a bastard. Although my current crochet project is also cotton (Scheepjes Stone Washed) but with some acrylic added, which is probably why it's so smooth and easy to crochet with.

Well, pottery was a lot of fun but despite both of us being total novices it turns out J is a frigging master potter in disguise

Guess which ones were mine, and which his

Yeah, there was a guy like that on my course too! It’s infuriating, isn’t it?

Also, none of those are exactly duds.

Are you going back to finish them? I found the trimming and shaping day much more fun than the throwing day (mainly because I was frustrated about being shit at throwing anything other than straight sided pots).

Nah, they smarten them up and glaze them for us-we get to go back in a month or so.

We had been joking about being natural pottery geniuses having watched The Great Pottery Throw Down so keenly, but I thought we'd both be as shit as each other

I had a go on a pottery wheel on a trip in langkawi, and made an awesome bowl. Even the pottery guy was genuinely impressed. I was very pleased with myself, turned around...and then it collapsed

You being good at handicrafts is not exactly surprising to me, smalex!

All the pottery is great! Having a go must be fun.

H1ppychick wrote: ↑Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:57 pm You being good at handicrafts is not exactly surprising to me, smalex!

The point of the story was that I wasn't , (looked good....for about one and a half minutes)

My overlocker is due back today, hurrah. I have a dress and top for me plus Lego fabric outfit each for the girls (one dress and mini shorts, the other shorts and a cropped t-shirt) cut out and ready to sew.

We’ve all chosen an outfit for an October christening too.

Argh, I'm soooo slow! Don't laugh. What with all the counting stitches and misreading the instructions, I had to unpick the trunk FIVE times before I got it right ... and, even then, you can see a few botched stitches. I'm still happy I'm doing this though, and it's beginning to be more 'fun'.

A question for you. I found a very old, and almost full, bag of natural kapok at the back of the cupboard, and have stuffed the trunk. But It occurs to me that no one uses kapok anymore. Is it washable, do you know? As it's a child's toy, would I be better off liberating a bag of polyester wadding from the shop?

Beatrix wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:37 am It’s looking good! I’d have thought kapok would be fine, given that’s it natural. I’m sure it’s green credentials are much better than polyester, if that matters (and it’s been sustainably sourced). It can be washed.

I'm seeing now that kapok is supposed to be highly flammable, which partly accounts for it's decline in popularity. But I've watched a YouTube flame test and it doesn't seem particularly so. I know that modern polyester wadding is probably treated to be non-flammable, but I might conduct my own test for comparison before using the kapok.

FFS! I'm such a numptie. I had to look up an instruction "BLO sc in all 54 st [54]", as I didn't know what BLO meant. Back loop only! I've only now realised that I've been crocheting wrong all this time. I've been doing BLO for the whole project! It doesn't look any different on the right side, but I imagine there's a reason for doing BLO for one row?

Can anyone tell me what would be the function of one row of BLO ... and, having crocheted the whole top part of the elephant's torso using this stitch, what would be the impact on the design/finished toy? :facepalm:

ETA - ah. Hang on, I think I've got it. I must be working back-to-front. Presumably, one row of BLO (if I were working the right way round) would result in a single rib, delineating the end of the elephant's T-shirt/upper body. I wonder if it matters, design-wise?

BLO can help with shaping so you might use it as you are going around a curve.

I decided to unpick (again) and re-do the BDO row using the correct side of the chain stitch. So, now the elephant's T-shirt has a definite hemline. There are so many mistakes in this. I don't know what's going on with the ends of row. They seem to be creeping around the front of the elephant with each increase in stitches. This isn't evident from the photo in the book, so I must have started crocheting the body from the wrong end or something. The back looks great - albeit with some wonky tension, probably caused by all the unpicking and re-doing. The misaligned colour changes look all the worse for my over-ambitious idea to change the T-shirt colours for the colours of the South African flag. I can only hope that, when it's all done, L and D will accept this gift for A in the spirit in which it is given.

The next toy will be better.

It’s looking good.

Do you use a Kirby grip to mark the end of your row? This is an old photo of mine but you can see how I use the grip to show me where I need to finish.