*Drum roll* the final dinosaur to be unearthed is Alber­to the albertosaurus! 

This calls for a dinosaur dance :D

The name Alber­tosaurus hon­ours Alber­ta, the Cana­di­an province in which the first fos­sils of this dinosaur was found the same year that the province was estab­lished, in 1905! (source) This whole series of mys­tery tiny dinosaurs is also inspired by our trip to Drumheller, Alber­ta, so I thought it’d be fit­ting to wrap up the series with the Albertosaurus.

I made them with bulky yarn and 4 mm hook. I have this var­ie­gat­ed yarn that I thought would be per­fect, and then thought it would also look rad in bright pink :D

While the Alber­tosaurus looks very much like Tyran­nosaurus Rex, it is about half the size of T‑Rex. Nev­er­the­less, it was a fear­some dinosaur that hunt­ed in packs. (source)

Unlike oth­er dinosaurs in the series, which have the same fea­tures on both sides, Alber­to is a one-sided dinosaur, because of the way the legs are made, so it won’t look quite right on the back side, but it would make a nice brooch or ornament.

The design is based on the Alber­tosaurus on the back of the tick­et for Tyrrell Muse­um :D

This dinosaur is prob­a­bly the most com­pli­cat­ed of all in the series because of the legs. But there are lots of process pho­tos so I hope that helps! If you need any clar­i­fi­ca­tions please feel free to leave a comment!

You’ll need:

• Small amount of Bulky weight yarn
• 4 mm hook
• Tapes­try needle
• Black seed bead, black sewing thread and sewing needle

(You can also use worsted weight yarn and 3.5 mm hook for a small­er dinosaur)

Pat­tern:

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 around).

Round 3: [2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc] five times, 2 sc in next sc, sl st in next sc (17 sc and 1 sl st around).

Head/neck:

ch 7, [yo twice, pull up a loop] three times in 4th ch from hook, yo and pull through 4 loops on hook, yo and pull through the rest of the loops on hook (4 tr tog com­plet­ed), ch 1, 4 sc around last tr made, it will look like this…

sl st in next ch in neck, sc in next ch, hdc in next ch, hold body in half, sk next sc in body, sl st in next 6 sc in body/back of the dinosaur through both loops and both lay­ers of the body piece, don’t fas­ten off and con­tin­ue on to tail.

Tail: ch 8, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next 2 ch, sc in next 2 ch, hdc in next ch, dc in next ch, sl st in a stitch at the tip of the fold­ed body piece, like so…

Don’t fas­ten off, con­tin­ue on to make legs.

Front leg:

Hold­ing the dinosaur bel­ly side up, insert hook into a stitch in round 2 of body, next to where the last sl st was made, and bring the hook out 2 stitch­es from where the hook was insert­ed in round 2 of body, like so…

yo and pull through loop on hook. It will look like this.

yo and pull through loop on hook again, so it looks like this…

See there’s a long ver­ti­cal strand of yarn made, essen­tial­ly a very elon­gat­ed sc. Work 2 dc tog around this ver­ti­cal strand, like so…

This makes the thigh! :D

ch 6, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, pull up a loop in next 2 ch, then pull the last loop on hook through the oth­er 2 loops on hook, sl st in next 2 ch, ch 1, don’t fas­ten off and con­tin­ue on to back leg.

Back leg:

Insert hook from the bot­tom (a stitch in round 1) of body to a stitch in round 2 of body in the back, like so…

yo and pull through loop on hook. There will be a ver­ti­cal strand of yarn made like the one in front leg. sl st around the ver­ti­cal strand in back, then con­tin­ue to make the leg with the front fac­ing you. It will look like this from the front.

ch 5, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, pull up a loop in next 2 ch, pull last loop on hook through the oth­er 2 loops on hook, sl st in next ch, sl st in the ver­ti­cal strand…

ch 1, pull out a 20″ length of yarn, cut yarn.

Arms:

Thread yarn tail in tapes­try nee­dle, insert nee­dle in the under­side of body, and out in the front of body where the arm would be, like so…

Remove the nee­dle. From the front of the body, insert hook where the yarn tail came out and draw up a loop. It will look like this.

ch 4, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, sl st in next ch, remove hook and pull out the yarn tail.

Using the hook, pull the yarn tail to the back of body where the oth­er yarn would be, insert hook where the yarn tail came out, draw up a loop, like so…

ch 4, sl st in 2nd ch, pull up a loop in next 2 ch, pull last loop on hook through the 2 oth­er loops on hook, remove hook and pull out yarn tail.

Thread yarn tail through tapes­try nee­dle, insert nee­dle at the begin­ning of the back arm and come out through a stitch at the top in the back, fas­ten off, weave in end. Sew on eye. Rawr.

I hope you enjoyed this series! Don’t for­get to share your dino pics by:

 

• Blog­gers: leav­ing a com­ment on any of the Mys­tery Dino CAL posts with a link to your blog post with the picture.
• Insta­gram­mers: tag me @genuinemudpie and use the hash­tag #mys­tery­dinocal
• Rav­ellers: join­ing the Rav­el­ry group and post­ing your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

There will be a vir­tu­al dino par­ty with all your pic­tures in the near future, stay tuned! :D

 

You can find all the oth­er mys­tery dino CAL posts here:

Mys­tery dino CAL intro post

Stu the Stegosaurus

Dmitri the Dimetrodon

Trix­ie the Triceratops

Bron­wyn the Brontosaurus

Nessie the Plesiosaurus

Kin­taro the Pterosaur

 

Have a rawring week, every­one! :D

 

 

Can’t believe we’re at the sec­ond last episode of mys­tery dino CAL already! This week’s dinosaur is Kin­taro the pterosaur!

Pterosaur is tech­ni­cal­ly a fly­ing rep­tile and not a dinosaur, but that does­n’t make it any less icon­ic in our col­lec­tive imag­i­na­tion of the pre­his­toric world! The word pterosaur lit­er­al­ly means “winged-lizard”, the largest of this species had a wingspan as wide as a small plane. It is believed that they could fly as soon as they are hatched, and ate small fish and could fil­ter small fish from water with teeth like those of whales. (source)

Kin­taro, on the oth­er hand, means “gold­en boy” in Japan­ese, and is a hero of extra­or­di­nary strengths and friends of ani­mals in Japan­ese folk­lore :) (source)

The con­struc­tion for Kin­taro is a bit more com­pli­cat­ed than oth­er dinosaurs because of the wings, it’s a good next step in lev­el of cro­chet chal­lenge if you have been cro­chet­ing along! If you are new to the series, this is still not too dif­fi­cult and there are some pho­tos to guide you along, and you can find all the oth­er dinosaurs here.

You’ll need:

• A bit of worsted weight yarn
• 3.5 mm hook
• Tapes­try needle
• Black thread, sewing nee­dle, and seed beads for eyes

Pat­tern:

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 around).

Round 3: [2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc] five times, 2 sc in next sc, sl st in next sc (17 sc and 1 sl st around).

Neck and head:

ch 6, sl st in 2nd ch, [yo, pull up a loop] twice in next ch, [yo, pull up a loop] twice in next ch, pull through all loops on hook (head made), ch 6, sl st in 2nd ch from hook and next 3 ch, hdc in the same ch as sec­ond half of the head (skull crest made), sc in next 2 ch of neck, con­tin­ue on to wings…

Wings, tail and leg:

The rows of the wings run per­pen­dic­u­lar to the body.

With body piece fold­ed in half, sl st in first 2 sc of back after the neck through both lay­ers of body. 

Then, ch 7, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 5 ch, skip next sc in body, work­ing in the front loops of the front lay­er of body only, sl st in next 2 sc in body, turn.

sc in next 4 sc of wing, sl st in next sc, turn.

Skip first sc, sl st in next sc, sc in next 3 sc, sl st in next sc in body through front loops only, pull up a very long loop of yarn — I used 1.5 of a human wingspan’s length — and cut yarn.

Using tapes­try nee­dle and the long yarn tail, sew togeth­er the back towards the neck, through the remain­ing back loops of the front piece of body, and the back loops of the back piece of body, like so…

Remove the nee­dle and using the long yarn tail, pull up a loop in the stitch to the right of the sec­ond sl st on body after the neck, like so…

Repeat pat­tern for wing.

sl st through both loops and both lay­ers of body in next sc in body after the sec­ond wing, sl st in the last sc in body, ch 2, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in the last sc in body (tail made), sl st in a stitch between the 2nd and 3rd round of body towards the under­side of the body, ch 4, fas­ten off (one leg made).

Oth­er leg:

Attach yarn to back of the body in the stitch between the 2nd and 3rd round, same as where the first leg is attached. ch 4, fas­ten off.

Weave in ends. Trim the yarn tails on the end of the legs and fray them a bit so they look like claws. Sew on eyes. And it’s done!

Here’s Kin­taro fly­ing over Mike’s head remind­ing him to work hard ^_^; 

 

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

Nessie the Plesiosaurus

 

Share your dinosaur pics by:

• Blog­gers: leav­ing a com­ment on any of the Mys­tery Dino CAL posts with a link to your blog post with the picture.
• Insta­gram­mers: tag me @genuinemudpie and use the hash­tag #mys­tery­dinocal
• Rav­ellers: join­ing the Rav­el­ry group and post­ing your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

 

Stay tuned for the grand finale of the mys­tery dino CAL! :D Hap­py week­end everyone!

 

 

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

 

Meet Bron­wyn the brontosaurus!

Bron­tosaurus means thun­der lizard! And this cro­cheted dino is named Bron­wyn after the girl with mighty strength and the kind­est heart in Miss Pere­grine’s Home for Pecu­liar Chil­dren :)

Here the Bron­tosaurus are enjoy­ing a peace­ful moment shar­ing a snack of ferns. 

It was one of the largest crea­tures ever walked on earth, yet lived entire­ly on plants. In defense, its tail could pro­duce a sound loud­er than the fir­ing of a can­non when it was cracked like a bull­whip! (source)

But I pic­ture bron­tosaurus liv­ing peace­ful­ly among trees, eat­ing plants most of the time.

Because of the way the yarn twists in cro­chet stitch­es, the neck of the dinosaur tends to twist and not stay flat. I would sug­gest using a stiff-feel­ing heavy worsted (like acrylic) or even bulky weight yarn to help main­tain its shape.

To make your own peace­ful dinosaur friend, you will need:

• A bit of worsted weight yarn in main colour
• A length of worsted weight yarn in con­trast­ing colour, for the spots
• 3.5 mm hook
• Tapes­try needle
• Black seed beads, for eyes
• Sewing nee­dle and black thread

Pat­tern:

By now, you prob­a­bly notice that all the mys­tery dino pat­terns fol­low the same dumpling base, with slight mod­i­fi­ca­tions for the promi­nent fea­tures of the dif­fer­ent dinosaurs. So for the bron­tosaurus, it is its long neck! But the body is the same as the oth­er dinosaurs in the series. If you’re new to the CAL, vis­it the first dinosaur of the series, stegosaurus, for a pho­to tuto­r­i­al of cro­chet­ing the body, tail and the legs! 

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).

*Note that the last round is dif­fer­ent from pre­vi­ous dinosaurs!*

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). Remove hook and pull out the loop. 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 a stitch between the 2nd and 3rd rounds of body in the front. Pull the yarn tail through, remove the nee­dle. Insert hook 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.

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.

Using con­trast­ing colour yarn and tapes­try nee­dle, make French knots on body for spots.

Using black seed beads, sewing nee­dle and thread, attach eyes. Weave in all ends.

Woohoo! That was­n’t too hard, right?

 

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

 

Don’t for­get to share your dinosaur pics 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
• Join­ing the Rav­el­ry group
• Post­ing your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

 

Stay pecu­liar, friends! :)

 

This week’s fea­ture dinosaur is every­one’s favourite veg­e­tar­i­an — Trix­ie Tricer­atops! Yes, she is named after the dinosaur toy down the street from Toy Sto­ry 3 :D

I made both ver­sions of Trix­ie with a heavy worsted / bulky yarn and a 4 mm hook, because I’ve always had the idea that it’s a chunky kind of dinosaur. So the fin­ished dinosaur is slight­ly larg­er than the oth­er dinosaurs we have been mak­ing. The head of a tricer­atops is 1/3 of its total length! So I’ve also made the body a bit smaller.

Tricer­atops is named for the 3 horns on its head (lit­er­al­ly means “3‑horned face”), so it was impor­tant to get this fea­ture right, and I spent quite some time fig­ur­ing out a way to make the horns look like they are seam­less­ly attached to the head. I’m quite hap­py with the way it turned out and it’s actu­al­ly not dif­fi­cult to do :)

Mate­ri­als:

• A bit of heavy worsted or bulky weight yarn for body and head
• A bit of sport weight yarn in white, for horns
• 4 mm hook
• 2.5 mm hook
• Tapes­try needle
• Sewing nee­dle, black thread, 4 mm round black bead (if you don’t have that, the reg­u­lar black seed bead would look fine too)
• Fab­ric glue (option­al)

Pat­tern:

The body, tail and legs of tricer­atops is the same as stegosaurus, except that it has one less round on the body, and skips the head. Check out the stegosaurus pat­tern page for pho­to tuto­r­i­al espe­cial­ly on how to make the legs! But I’ll write the entire pat­tern below so it’s easy.

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

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).

Fold piece in half, sl st across back of dinosaur through both lay­ers until last sc, don’t fas­ten off.

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. 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 a stitch between the 2nd and 3rd rounds of body in the front. Pull the yarn tail through, remove the nee­dle. Insert hook 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.

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.

Head: 

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

Round 2: 1 sc in every sc around (6 sc).

Round 3: [2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next sc] three times (9 sc).

Round 4: hdc in next sc, *[dc, ch 3, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, dc] in next sc*, * to * will be known as the “V‑stitch”. Repeat V‑stitch in next 2 sc, hdc in next sc, sc in next 4 sc, sl st in next st, pull out a long yarn tail for sewing, cut yarn. 

Horns:

Using white yarn and small­er hook, and leav­ing a 3″ tail, ch 5, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next 3 ch, ch 8, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next 3 ch, ch 8, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next 2 ch, fas­ten off, leav­ing a 3″ tail.

You will end up with some­thing that looks like this — 2 longer (fore­head) horns sep­a­rat­ed by ch 3, and a short­er (nose) horn sep­a­rat­ed from one of the longer horns by ch 4.

Remem­ber the V‑stitch in the last round (round 4) of the head? Insert small­er hook (or an even small­er hook if you have one) into the base of the first V‑stitch you made in round 4 (the V‑stitch on the most right when you’re fac­ing it), then insert tip of the hook through a loop at the top of the fore­head horn on the right. Pull the horn through the stitch in head.

Then, insert hook into the base of the last V‑stitch made in round 4 (the V‑stitch on the most left when you’re fac­ing it). Insert tip of the hook through a loop at the top of the remain­ing fore­head horn, pull the horn through the stitch in head. 

Final­ly, insert hook into a space between two sc’s in round 1 of head, then insert tip of the hook through a loop at the top of the nose horn, pull the horn through the stitch in head.

Tie the yarn tails of the horns togeth­er. You can put some fab­ric glue at the stitch­es where the horns were pulled through inside the head to secure them more, but that’s optional.

Here’s a close up of the head so you can see how the horns are positioned…

Now we sew the head to the body. (When I took process pic­tures I for­got to put the horns on before sewing the head to the body, hence the head with­out horns in these pic­tures. That makes sewing on the horns more dif­fi­cult — but not impos­si­ble — I would still sug­gest sewing on the horns first before attach­ing head to body)

Thread the tapes­try nee­dle through the yarn tail left on head. We’re attach­ing the base of the head to the nub on the neck end of the body.

You’re fold­ing the head piece in half, and the head will sand­wich the “neck” part of the body, like so. Stitch through all lay­ers a few times, then fas­ten off.

Sew the eye right below the fore­head horn. Weave in all the ends. And here she is, in Trix­ie colours! :D

 

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

Mys­tery dino CAL intro post

Stu the Stegosaurus

Dmitri the Dimetrodon

Don’t for­get to share your dinosaur pics 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
• Join­ing the Rav­el­ry group
• Post­ing your FOs to my Rav­el­ry dino project pages!

 

Have a beau­ti­ful week every­one! :D

 

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!

• Mys­tery Dino CAL info post
• Stu the Stegosaurus

 

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

 

 

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!