When this pat­tern goes online I should be arriv­ing in Drumheller, Alber­ta — dinosaur cap­i­tal of the world! I’ve been look­ing for­ward to this trip for ages, and stegosaurus is my all-time favourite dinosaur since child­hood, so I thought I’d share a pat­tern to mark the occa­sion :D

It’s been a while since I wrote an amigu­ru­mi pat­tern, hope I’m not too rusty! This stegosaurus actu­al­ly evolved from the dumpling pat­tern I wrote a long time ago. I won­der what the stegosaurus would think about that, evolv­ing from a dumpling…

Any­way, here he is sit­ting on my hand for scale. Prob­a­bly makes a nice pin/brooch or magnet!

This pat­tern is super easy and takes very lit­tle time and yarn. To make your own tiny stegosaurus, you’ll need:

• A bit of worsted weight yarn for main colour for body, and con­trast­ing colour for spikes
• 3.5 mm and 3 mm cro­chet hooks (if you only have either size, that’s fine too)
• Tapes­try nee­dle (very impor­tant! You’ll see in the pictures)
• Black seed beads
• Black thread and sewing needle

Pat­tern:

The body begins as a cir­cle, and with larg­er hook.

Round 1: ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd sc from hook, don’t join in round.

Round 2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sc).

Round 3: [sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc] six times (18 sc).

Round 4: sc in each sc around (18 sc), don’t fas­ten off.

Next, we make the head: in the same sc where last sc was made, [yo, pull up a loop] three times, pull through all loops on hook, ch 1 (clus­ter made), sc in same sc as clus­ter. Don’t fas­ten off.

We now fold the piece in half, and from here on cro­chet through both lay­ers across the back of the dinosaur.

Back: sl st in next sc on body through both lay­ers, like so…

sl st in next sc — attach con­trast­ing colour yarn when pulling up loop to fin­ish the sl st, like so…

Car­ry the main colour as you work across back with con­trast­ing colour.

Spikes: with con­trast­ing colour, [ch 3, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next sc in body (work­ing through both lay­ers)] five times.

Here is a pic­ture of the spikes in progress, notice that the main colour is being car­ried and wrapped in the stitch­es across back.

In the last sl st of spike, pull up loop using main colour, there­by switch­ing back to main colour. Fas­ten off con­trast­ing colour.

Tail: with main colour, sl st in last st through both lay­ers on back, ch 5, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next ch, sc in last 2 ch of tail, sl st in a space between the 3rd and 4th round in the body (bel­ly part of the dinosaur). Remove hook and pull out the loop, as shown in the pic­ture. Pull through enough yarn so that you have a 12″ tail. Cut yarn.

Hind leg: Thread the yarn tail through the tapes­try nee­dle, weave the nee­dle through the bel­ly of the dinosaur so that the nee­dle comes out through the 2nd and 3rd rounds of body in the front, like so…

Pull the yarn tail through, remove the nee­dle. Insert small­er hook (if you have it) through the stitch where the yarn tail came through…

Pull up a loop using the yarn tail…

ch 3, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, remove hook and pull the yarn tail out, like so… 

Thread the yarn tail through the tapes­try nee­dle again, insert nee­dle in a stitch between 1st and 2nd round in body, then come out in a stitch between 1st and 2nd round in body in the front on the oppo­site side, like so…

Front leg: Work as the same as hind leg, as fol­lows: remove nee­dle, insert hook through the stitch where the yarn tail came through, pull up a loop with the yarn tail. ch 3, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, pull out yarn tail, thread yarn tail back in tapes­try nee­dle, insert nee­dle through a stitch between 2nd and 3rd round of body, then come out near the top on the back of the piece, fas­ten off.

Weave in all the ends. Pull the long yarn tail into the body of the dinosaur to fill it out a bit :)

Tail spikes: Cut a length of con­trast­ing colour yarn about 3 inch­es long. With wrong side fac­ing, pull up a loop through a stitch at the end of the tail with the short length of yarn, then pull the two short yarn tail through the loop just made. Pull tight care­ful­ly. Trim spikes. Apply a bit of fab­ric glue at the base of the spikes. 

And it’s done!

Stegosaurus in its nat­ur­al habitat…

Let me know if you do make your own tiny stegosaurus, I’d love to see it! If there are enough pic­tures we’ll have a vir­tu­al stegosaurus par­ty and it will be fun, so please share! :D

Hap­py crocheting!