mystery dino CAL: dimetrodon!

Wel­come to the sec­ond episode of mys­tery dino cro­chet-along! Meet Mike’s favourite, Dmitri the Dimetrodon! Known for the awe­some sail on its back! Its con­struc­tion is very sim­i­lar to Stu the stegosaurus, with the same dumpling base :D

The pro­to­type for Dmitri was made while we were wait­ing for our flight home at Cal­gary air­port. The bulky light blue yarn was all I had, but I think it turned out great! 

Fun facts about Dmitri: It is a Greek name that means earth-lover, and the name of my grade 12 math teacher, Ms. Dmitri :)

Fun facts about dimetrodon (from here and here):

  • It’s actu­al­ly not a dinosaur, but a pre­his­toric rep­tile! (but we love you any­way, Dmitri!)
  • It used its sail to reg­u­late body temperature
  • Its name refers to its 2 dif­fer­ent types of teeth, rather than its famous sail (and it’s a meat-eater!)

I did­n’t have beads with me so the poor thing was eye­less the entire flight home :S

For the light blue one with chunky yarn, I used a 4mm hook for the body, and 2.5mm hook and a light worsted yarn for the sail on its back. It’s slight­ly big­ger than the reg­u­lar size one. Hook and yarn for the reg­u­lar size is below.

 

Mate­r­i­al:

  • Small amount of worsted yarn — for body (green)
  • Small amount of light worsted or sport weight yarn — for sail (pink)
  • 3.5 mm hook — for body
  • 2.5 mm hook — for sail
  • Tapes­try needle
  • Sewing nee­dle, black thread, black seed bead

Pat­tern:

It’s the same as stegosaurus for the body, tail and legs, so if you’ve made Stu the stegosaurus, you’d have no prob­lem mak­ing Dmitri! But I’ll repeat the entire pat­tern here any­way so it’s easy. You might still want to check out the link for Stu though, because it has some explana­to­ry pho­tos that might help clar­i­fy the steps.

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

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.

Sail: sl st in next 2 sc, sl st in next sc and attach pink yarn when pulling up loop to fin­ish the sl st.

Don’t fas­ten off green, car­ry it as you work across the back with pink.

The sail is worked in rows per­pen­dic­u­lar to the back of the dinosaur.

Row 1: ch 3, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, sl st in next sc through both lay­ers in body/back of dinosaur, turn.

Row 2: In front loops only (FLO), sc in next 2 sc, turn.

Row 3: ch 2, sc in 2nd ch from hook, in back loops only (BLO), sc in next 2 sc, sl st in next sc in body, turn.

Row 4: sc in next 3 sc FLO, turn.

Row 5: ch 1, sc in next 3 sc BLO, sl st in next sc in body, turn.

Row 6: sc in next 3 sc FLO, turn.

Row 7: Skip first sc, sc in next 2 sc BLO, sl st in next sc in body, turn.

Row 8: sc in next 2 sc FLO, turn.

Row 9: Skip first sc, sc in next sc BLO, sl st in body by pulling up a loop using the green yarn that you’ve been car­ry­ing, fas­ten off pink, con­tin­ue with green for tail.

Tail: 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.

(You might want to check out the pic­tures in the stegosaurus post for the legs — it’s real­ly eas­i­er than it looks in writing.)

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

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.

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 :)

Using sewing nee­dle and black thread, sew on the seed bead as eye. Weave in thread end.

And it’s done! :D

Hope you enjoy mak­ing the dinosaurs! Don’t for­get to share your cre­ations by:

 

  • Email­ing genuinemudpie[at]gmail[dot]com
  • Blog­gers: leave a com­ment on any of the Mys­tery Dino CAL posts with a link to your blog post with the picture.
  • Insta­gram: tag me @genuinemudpie and use the hash­tag #mys­tery­dinocal
  • Join the Rav­el­ry group
  • Post your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

If you’re just join­ing now, here’s the recap of what we got so far!

 

As the say­ing goes… May the road rise up to meet you, and may the wind always fill your sail :) Have a ter­rif­ic week!