Turtle Butt Cake Smash

I debated for a long time what to make Lucky to wear for his birthday photoshoot and smash cake session.  I practiced a crochet diaper cover, but in the end I really like how his turtle butt fit, even at 11 months.  The problem was that the original turtle butt's colors just weren't perfect for his birthday party color scheme.  What could I do but make another?

I had already purchased Brava Bulky in Peapod (CC) and Celestial (MC) for cake smash. I should have purchased worsted weight yarn for this project, but I thought I was going to make another crochet diaper cover and I wanted the yarn to be a bit thicker. I’ll just have to check my gauge and maybe I’ll make one size smaller of this pattern (Check out Turtle Butt on Ravelry) for the cake smash outfit.  

I swatched on size 5 needles first and got 14 sts/3".  It is a little big, but given that the size Small fit Lucky at 16 weeks and still fits him now I think that it will work out if a new small is a tiny bit too big.  (Worst case scenario I make a third one.  Gulp!)  I used size 4 needles for the fibbing and size 5 needles for the main body of the soaker.  Since I'm knitting in 100% acrylic, I know that this won't actually have any diaper soaking abilities, but I wanted it to be the look of the outfit, rather than a function.  Plus after rolling around in cake I would want to be able to toss this in a washing machine!  

I did not measure the row guage but I hadn't measured it on the previous version.  Thankfully I have it to compare to.  After 3 rows of ribbing (including cast on) I am at half an inch on the new soaker.  I had 4 rows + cast on to get to the same height.  I will try to keep the sizing the same, so I will be removing some rows as I go on with this project.  Wish me luck on this series of modifications.

I had to reduce the number of rows in the ribbing (5 rounds before eyelet, 4 rounds after) to kepe the sizing on par with the first turtle butt I made.  When it came to the hexagons, it was much closer to the gauge I needed.  I thought that I might do 5 slip stitch rounds instead of 6, but I am going to do it as written.  This makes things MUCH easier when it comes to keeping track of where I am in the pattern.  (I did some knitting backwards to see how much 6 finished rounds would measure up, I didn't completely wing this.)

This is the second time I've done a garter graft.  The first time was... you've guessed it!  THe first time I did this pattern.  I couldn't remember how to do it so I'm grateful for the step by step instructions in the pattern (page 3 if you're cuirous.)  

The sizing is SUPER close.  Phew!  

At this point Lucky was awake so I needed to try the diaper cover on him.  He was very interested in the long strands of yarn that were attached to the project still.  

After trying it on Lucky, I'm a little concerned about the fit.  However after making one of the legs (picked up 46 sts) I see that it is cinched up a bit.  Hopefully the final fit will be perfect for my lucky Lucky boy!  

What do you think, did we use this for Lucky's birthday?  Of course!  It fit perfectly and he looked great.