Beaded Fidget Turtles

This crochet Beaded Fidget Turtle, a paid pattern by Emily Nigro (aka Willow & Wild) is super cute and very quick and easy to make, and it requires just a small amount of yarn, 2 safety eyes, 16 pony beads, and a bit of stuffing. After you make one, you'll then want to make more in ALLLL the colors!! 😂

I crocheted it using a 4 mm hook and used a 2.5 mm hook for the bead stitches.

It even has a little tail!

This one is a gift for my physical therapist. Anyone can tell the moment they walk into my PT's office that she loves turtles, because turtle iconography is everywhere, and she even has a pair of live turtles in a tank in the waiting room. 🐢 The ambience is very calm and soothing, and it's fun to sit and watch the turtles swim or sun themselves on a rock.

BTW, my PT's name is Rey. It isn't every day that one gets to have a Jedi as one's physical therapist, eh?! She is excellent.

After I saw how adorable the first turtle for Rey turned out, I realized that I also had to make one for Rey's office manager, Hannah, and for Rey's student intern, Cheyenne. So I did. 😊 Now there are three widdle turtles for me to take to my next PT appointment, and each one is slightly different. 💜

I have also made the Beaded Hedgehog Fidget by Willow & Wild. Her patterns are always fun, well-written, easy to follow, and result in some really adorable critters. She has tons of amazing patterns to choose from, so you should definitely check them out. I'm sure I will be making more in the future!

Emotional Support Chicken

I just couldn't resist the allure of the Emotional Support Chicken any longer. Meet Scrappy Henrietta! 😍

This pattern arrived on the knitting scene sometime in 2023 or 2024 (I believe), and the internet practically EXPLODED with excitement.

I added the pattern to my Ravelry favorites for safe-keeping but decided to wait before making one. I noticed, however, as the months went by the way the emotional support chicken consistently remained on the first page of Ravelry's "hot right now" designs, suggesting that the internet's adoration for the ESCs had yet to abate. It was on FIRE.

Eventually, I just couldn't resist the pull of the ESC any more.  

I think the thing that put me over the edge was when I discovered that The Knitting Tree LA had made a companion video for the pattern. Checking out the video was my undoing. 😂

Tail part 1

I grabbed a long old scrap of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in the Jazzy Stripe colorway (left over from an Infinite Granny Square afghan project) and cast on to follow along with the video, which starts at the tail.

Tail part 2

For part 2 of the tail and the main part of the body, I used a couple of long scraps of Red Heart With Love in the Pewter Gray colorway that were left over from when I made my Autumn Mists vest with no pattern.

Tail and main body

I don't know which yarn I used for the neck and head, but it was one long scrap of an ombre-ish yarn with purple, dark pink, and raspberry colors that is probably something by Red Heart, but I didn't have a label for it anymore.

Neck and head added

I used up the remainder of the raspberry ombre scrap for the top end of the undersection piece, and more of the gray yarn to finish the undersection.

Henrietta got a bit wonky as I was sewing her up, where the two ends of her neck stripes don't line up at the front, but hey. She is still adorable, and I wuv her!! She has 15 mm blue safety eyes from a pack that I bought off Etsy years ago from a seller named 6060, who is no longer active on the site. Whenever I'm installing safety eyes, I always use this tool to help set the backs, because it makes it a lot easier for my arthritic hands to handle the task of snapping them on securely.

You might be able to knit a whole ESC by only watching the video, but I think the video really makes a better accompaniment if you also own the written pattern, so before I reached the end of the first tail section, I bought the pattern: And the emotional support chicken claimed yet another willing (happy) victim. 😂

I followed this up by making a friend for Scrappy Henrietta, another Emotional Support Chicken, Scrappy Patty, in colors to match our guest bedroom.

Scrappy Patty and Scrappy Henrietta

 

Scrappy Patty sitting on the bed in our guest bedroom

Scrappy Patty side view