The 5th dinosaur is Nessie the Plesiosaurus!

The name ple­siosaurus derives from Greek words for “almost-lizard”. Con­trary to pop­u­lar imag­i­na­tion, ple­siosaurus were not great swim­mers and could not breathe under­wa­ter. It also laid eggs and buried them in soft sand like sea tur­tles. It mea­sured twice as long as a horse, and weight­ed twice as much as a pig. (source)

Here are two Nessies bob­bing along in the ocean. The larg­er blue ver­sion is made with bulky weight yarn and 4 mm hook, and the pale green ver­sion is made with the usu­al worsted weight yarn and 3.5 mm hook.

As you may notice, ple­siosaurus is cro­cheted most­ly the same as bron­tosaurus, but with flip­pers. I took some process pic­tures to show you how I got the flip­pers on :D

I used:

• Small amount of worsted weight yarn
• 3.5 mm hook
• 2.5 mm hook (option­al, but it’s eas­i­er for weav­ing in ends)
• Sewing nee­dle, black thread and seed beads for eyes

Pat­tern:

Make body, neck and tail the same as bron­tosaurus, as follows.

The body begins as a circle.

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 next 17 sc, sl st in next sc, don’t fas­ten off.

Neck & head: ch 8, [yo, pull up a loop] twice in the 3rd ch from hook, pull through all loops on hook, ch 1 (pop­corn stitch made), 2 sc in the same ch as pop­corn stitch, 1 sc in each ch down the neck, con­tin­ue on to back of the dinosaur…

Back: Fold body in half, skip the sc imme­di­ate­ly next to the neck ch (on both sides), sl st in next sc and each sc through both lay­ers of body across back, con­tin­ue on to 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). Fas­ten off.

Flip­pers:

ch 5, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sc and hdc in next ch, sc in next ch, sl st in next ch, pull yarn through loop, leav­ing a tail 18″-20″ long, cut yarn. It will look like this.

With right side fac­ing, insert hook from the back of the dinosaur into a stitch where you want to posi­tion the first set of flip­pers, between the 2nd and 3rd rounds of body, like so…

Then, pull the yarn tail of the flip­per just made through the body, like so…

With the wrong side of the dinosaur fac­ing and the dinosaur posi­tioned upside down, insert hook through the body again in the same stitch, then pull up a loop using the yarn tail, like so…

Then, ch 5, and con­tin­ue with stitch­es for the oth­er flipper.

After the last sl st made in flip­per, pull out yarn tail, and weave it into the body through the same stitch where the flip­pers are attached.

Repeat as the start of the oth­er flippers.

With right side fac­ing and the dinosaur right side up, insert hook from the back in a stitch between rounds 2 and 3 of body, where you want to posi­tion the oth­er set of flip­pers, like so…

Repeat as the oth­er set of flippers.

Sew on eyes, and we’re done! :)

 

To recap, here are the mys­tery dino CAL posts so far:

Mys­tery dino CAL intro post

Stu the Stegosaurus

Dmitri the Dimetrodon

Trix­ie the Triceratops

Bron­wyn the Brontosaurus

 

Make a splash with your dinosaur pics by:

• Leav­ing 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
• Join­ing the Rav­el­ry group
• Post­ing your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

 

Hope every­one is hav­ing a great week­end! :D