Crocheters to the Rescue

I know I have not blogged in a while and there is a good reason for that. The Crafty Tortoise has been BOOMING! I have been super busy because of this and only have my fans/customers to thank... so THANK YOU!
My shop has rocketed up and away! I have more than doubled my sales this year, and was finding it very hard to keep up. That is when I brought in the Calvary. My shop is still Handmade, just not all handmade by me. I now have a group of suppliers helping me out. Quality is still my main concern. I make sure every stitch looks perfect before your hats go out.

What does this mean for you?

This means more patterns, more original designs and more growth for my business! This is great news for my customers and even better news for your little ones. I am able to still get orders out, but now I am able to create as well.
The Crafty Tortoise is still handmade, still modern, still quality, just faster!

This change will hopefully help move The Crafty Tortoise toward a Ready To Ship status in the future.

Melissa Wenn
Fiber Artist
The Crafty Tortoise

OWL HAT is a HOOT

NKS Photography has to be the BEST ever!! She took this adorable kissable photo for me of my owl hat! 

I cannot ask for a better photo from her! I will hopefully have a photo of my owl hat in teal for boys soon.

This is a square hat that is made up to look like an owl. It has slight ear flaps and braided ties. The color combo is my Favorite! And do you believe my husband picked that gorgeous magenta yarn out!

We were at a craft store and it and the marigold color were both on sale! I was just going to buy one of each, but my husband threw all that was on the shelf in my basket! I was shocked. His response was: "You'll make something awesome out of it. I have no doubt." 

He is so amazingly (apparently amazing is the word of the day) supportive. I don't think The Crafty Tortoise would be around if he wouldn't have pushed me to follow a small dream of creating crochet patterns.

Anyway,

Back to NKS Photography!

If you have not stopped by her shop you NEED to! She is amazing! 

She has taken lots of photos for me including Family photos of my my dogs, my husband and I. They turned out AMAZING!! I absolutely love them and so does everyone who sees them!

She made our dogs look SO photogenic!

We had to climb into this tree to take this and a few more photos. Can you believe we are actually 6 feet off the ground?

I love this photo, and I think Nikki (photographer) does too! It definitely shows off how uptight my jack russell (white) is and how laid back our affenpinscher (black) is.

Stop by and if you are in INDIANA schedule photos! You will not regret it!

New Patterns Up!

Just put up a few new patterns fresh from my mind!

By popular demand my Sock Monkey hat is in my shop! Both the hat and the pattern are now for sale!

Also now available is my Thick and Chunky Baby Blanket. The blanket and pattern are for

sale in my shop!

I was SO excited to get these up!

Epic Fail

You know those moments when you just sit back and accept failure. Sigh, well I have been having a lot of those lately in my pattern making. I have never been more frustrated in my whole career. It has been all I can do to keep from screaming, burning all my yarn and melting down my crochet hooks for the mere amusement of it all.

If you can't tell I have been in a rather (pardon my language) pissy mood.

I blame my ridiculous idea of "trying something different". It sounds great on paper, but once you begin it is a frustrating, bumpy ride that I was just not ready for. As my husband would put it "I wore roller skates to an ice rink." I just was not prepared.

To fill you in even further:

So my brilliant idea was to try to design diaper covers (they look easy enough). I have SO many GREAT ideas for different designs that I just had to start on them! (think coordinating with my hats!)

So I got my hook, my yarn, and my notebook and started away! I thought I was doing well, I had some measurements and some idea of how to start the pattern.

I probably got about 1/3 of the way through and decided I had made this WAY too big. (we are talking about 4 sizes too big!)

So I went with it. Changed the size in my mind, then it ended up being too small. My measurements were off, and the thing looks distorted, not what I had in mind at ALL.

Grrr... I have been tweaking and restitching, and unraveling for about a week and I am still no where near the outcome I was looking for.

So what to do now?

Start over, and I mean OVER. I am throwing everything away, all my (bad) covers so far, and the so called pattern I have created that does not work AT ALL!

Ahh... that feels better.

I am sure many of you have felt this way before, something that seems like a wonderful, gorgeous idea in your head, doesn't come out just right.

What did you do?

Custom Color Giraffe Hat

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner! For about as long as I have been doing Giraffe hats (over a year can you believe it!) I have been doing pink ones for friends of mine who really wanted something more feminine for their expecting baby girls. I had never thought about putting pink giraffe hats in my shop until a friend of mine nearly insisted!

She was so insistent that I was convinced that if she wanted them so did others! Finally after I received a professional photo of one of my pink giraffe hats I finally listed them!

HERE IS THE LINK

Not only can you buy a pink giraffe hat, but you can buy one of any color you would like! All my colors are listed and you just pick 2 of your favorites!

Check it out!

What is color would your giraffe hat be?

New Designs Coming soon!

Sorry I have not posted for a while, but I have been busy.

I have been working on a number of new patterns for you crocheters out there! This is only a sneak peak though... I have a photo shoot today and will be so excited to show you photos as soon as I get them back!

Here are a few of my designs:

LION HAT

BUNNY HAT

BEAR HAT

I know my photography skills are sub par, but you get the idea! I am super excited to get these photographed by a pro and on her baby!

I am so excited to get these patterns finally made. They should be available at the end of this month. All will be 3 dollars just like all my other animal hat patterns.

These are not the end either! I have a sketch book riddled with hats that have yet to come to reality.