In the week before Christmas, and only three days before I was due to see one of my best friends I realised I had yet to make a present for her little boy. To make matters worse, it was his 3rd birthday recently so it had better be something good! I knew one of his latest little obsessions was the cartoon Mike the Knight, which featured a dragon, so all I had to do was find a suitable pattern.
It wasn’t quite as straight forward as I hoped. The patterns on Ravelry were either gloriously complicated, too simple, too big, too small, too pokemon-y or just not quite what I had in mind. I definitely wanted a friendly looking, fat bottomed dragon with spines down its back, and it had to have wings and horns, but nothing was quite right.
Then I had the brainwave of looking through the patterns for dinosaurs, and came up with the Jurassic Cute Dinosaur pattern by Becky Garrett. There wasn’t a direct link or download for the pattern, but it was featured in issue 21 of Simply Crochet magazine… and I have issue 21 of Simply Crochet magazine!
All I had to do was improvise a few extra features and the dino became a dragon!
To make his face look more dragon-like I gave him big nostrils (for breathing fire, obviously!), yellow cats eyes (which look very serpent-like) and the horns were just little tubes of double crochet pulled tight at one end.
The spines down the back were a part of the original dino design, but I made a larger version in red to be the arrow-like point at the end of his tail. For his wings I made a larger version of the ones from the Cthulhu pattern I used for my brother’s present, adding reinforcement at the top edge to make it a bit firmer.
He definitely turned out to be the fat bottomed dragon I had in mind! The addition of half a sock full of plastic pellets ensures he sits up nicely, and he certainly is a sturdy dragon, just right for a sturdy little boy!
The original dinosaur pattern was very well written, and I particularly love the shape of the head and face! I did play about with some of the proportions of the body and limbs, in particular the arms which would have been far too small. I also worked it all in Stylecraft Special Aran, instead of DK. Over all, it was a bit of a wrench to give him away, but well worth it.
And I did make the deadline on time… only to have to change our plans at the last minute! At least I had more time to appreciate him before he went home with a certain happy little boy on Saturday. (Disclaimer: the happiness was probably due in part to the bag of jelly beans I also gave him!)
Obviously I have appalling time management skills, so it was no surprise that I was still working on nieceling no 3’s present on Boxing Day! I did get it finished in time for when I saw her on the 27th, and here it is!
I love penguins, and one of the great things about Christmas and winter in general is that there are suddenly penguins everywhere!
I used a free pattern Amigurumi Holiday Penguin from Lion Brand yarn, with only very minor changes (I didn’t stuff the wings, feet or beak, and I made a longer scarf and added tassels because theirs looked a bit mean). It is a nuisance having to log in to the Lion Brand site to get access to their free patterns, but its worth the minor inconvenience. I didn’t use Lion Brand Yarn though, opting for… yup, you guessed it, Stylecraft Special Aran!
Nieceling no 3 was delighted with her penguin, by the way, but ultimately it lost its fascination pretty quickly in the face of her Frozen magic wand (a snow globe on a stick that plays a few bars of Let It Go whilst being alarmingly similar to a mace that a less gentle child could smash things with!) I did wonder (for the millionth time) whether I should have crocheted her an Olaf instead, but maybe next time!
Okay, so that’s all the Christmas amigurumi finished, just a couple of knitted presents left to show you, plus a few other odds and ends. I might even show off some of the cool things I was lucky to be given for Christmas (hint: knitting and crochet books feature heavily!)
Hope you are all enjoying the new year!
Beth
🙂
This is awesome! Ive just started trying amigurumi!
I’m going to be following you, hope you dont mind if i ping back to you?
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No problem! Good luck with the amigurumi. Best piece of advice I can think of is use a much smaller hook than you normally would (the fabric should be quite stiff) and stuff it generously if you want it to keep its shape. 🙂
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Thanks! I always use a 4mm, i crochet quite tight anayway 🙂
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I usually need to use a hook 0.5mm smaller than recommended for a pattern, but with the recent amigurumi projects I’ve done I used a 3.5mm hook with Aran weight, and that came out just right. It’s amazing the difference a smaller hook makes! 🙂
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I made a little octopus, i named her octobelle, she’s gorgeous, she was my first attempt at amigurumi. I used a 3.5mm hook to make her and I also use aran weight! She turned out great. Seems on the the right track 🙂
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Just found your post with octobelle – very cute! 🙂
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She’s adorable, my daughter has already been playing with her, thanks for checking out my blog 🙂
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Very nice! I just love that dragon 🙂 And yes, I have quite a bit of experience with late Christmas presents as well 🙂 Still worth making them 🙂
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I miss the dragon now he has gone to his new home. I will have to seriously consider making another one soon. I seem to have a dragon shaped space on my work table. 😦
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I haven’t ventured into the world of Amigurumi but I love the way you have adapted the dinosaur pattern into a very convincing dragon!
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Thanks! He was so close to being a dragon anyway, it didn’t take much encouragement! 🙂
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The penguin is cute, but the dragon is utterly adorable, especially as you modified a dinosaur to create him.
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Thanks! Just heard from my sister-in-law that my niece is playing with her penguin and enjoys the fact she can take the scarf off and put it on again. Thankfully the novelty of the musical wand has worn off a little so it’s not driving them nuts! 🙂 I’m definitely getting more confident at modifying patterns now. I guess it comes with experience!
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Those are so cute! I love them both but that dragon is especially charming. Lucky kiddos those are!
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Thanks! I hope they get played with, but if they don’t at least I had fun making them! 🙂
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Love your dragon! I love crocheting amigurumi but it is always sad to see them go. My husband, on the other hand, is always pleased to see the back of them!
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Thanks! I think my husband is more concerned about my yarn stash taking over the flat! ☺
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