This tiny tortoise / turtle is a quick and easy knit.
The tiniest beasties are often the fiddliest to make but this one is surprisingly straightforward.

We have a bowl of walnuts on the table every winter and the left over shells just demand to be filled with something interesting- some years tiny clay dioramas, another year a pile of little, wobbly Fair Isle pin cushions, and this year tiny tortoises.

To make the tortoise, you knit a stocking stitch (stockinette) rectangle, knitting little short row head, legs and tail as you go. You gather the edges and seam the sides of the head. You then wet felt the turtle to miniaturise it, finally doing simple embroidery to make the features.

It takes me just over half an hour to knit and sew up a tortoise (I’m an average speed knitter), about 6 minutes for felting and a few minutes more for embroidering the face.
After felting, this tortoise will be about 5.6cm long, head tip to tail tip.

You will need:
8m of 4-ply (fingering) yarn (I used 1.9g Jamieson’s Spindrift)- to be wet feltable, this should be 100% wool and not superwash
2.75mm needles
Black embroidery thread
Needle
Walnut shell
3/4 hour of your life