Monday, March 1, 2010

Dino the Dinosaur!

Dino the Dinosaur

Dino is a friendly little dinosaur, whose construction is a bit tricky for beginners but a fun challenge for the more advanced toy makers among us. I’ll post tutorial pictures soon, when I work on his girlfriend!


*Errata: I misstyped some stuff when I wrote this up! For the sides of the head, I skipped row 5 and made wrote row 6 instead. But, just the numbers are wrong. Phew! I changed this in the pattern, and that's why stuff is red and bold. Sorry for the trouble, and thanks to laurena-lynn on ravelry for
catching my blunder.

Needles: Size 5 Double Pointed
Yarn: Berocco Comfort, 1/3 skein (possibly less)
Notions: Yarn needle, and embellishing supplies.
Techniques used: Knitting in the round, Provisional joining, seaming, grafting, shaping by making stitches, Kfb’ing, and SSKs and k2togs.
Abbreviations: All of the abbreviations are standard, if you don’t know what one means… you probably aren’t ready to do this project, haha. But seriously, I really don’t want to get an e-mail asking “What’s K8 mean????” … that’s a sign that you might want to start on a different project, love. Of course, if you DO have a technical question, you can e-mail me or message me on ravelry.


HEAD
CROWN: Make a slip knot, then Kfb. Turn, P2
Row 1: K1 m1 K1
Row 2: P
Row 3: K1 m1 K1 m1 K1
Row 4: P (5 stitches)
Row 5: K1 m1 K3 m1 K1
Row 6: P (7 stitches)
Row 7: K
Row 8: P
Row 9: K1 m1 K5 m1 K1
Row 10: P (9 stitches)
Work 17 rows stst, PM for row. Work 11 rows stst, PM for row. Work 4 rows stst. You should be about to start a knit row.
NECK (Part 1): Ssk, K5, k2tog. Turn an P across. Turn, SSk, K3, k2tog. Work in stst for 5 rows. You should have 5 stitches, place these on a holder or just leave them on the dpn and continue working with a new one.

SIDES OF THE HEAD
RIGHT (with finished work at the bottom, k side facing up.) Pick up 6 sts from between markers (if you didn’t put markers on both sides, just move your markers to the other end of the row after you pick up sts.
Work in stst for 10 rows, you should be about to start a knit row. Now the short rows begin!
Row 1: Slip 1, K5
Row 2: P5, w&t
Row 3: K5
Row 4: P5, w&t
Row 5: Slip 1, K4
Row 6: P4, w&t
Row 7: K4
Row 8: P4, w&t
Row 9: Slip 1, K3
Row 10: P3, w&t
Row 11: K3
Row 12: P3, w&t
Row 13: Slip 1, K2. Save these stitches on another holder or leave them on the dpn and start your next part with another.
LEFT (with your finished work on the bottom): I’m going to save some people trouble here and tell you that it’s the same as the right side, just with knit and purl reversed. Don’t worry! I’m still going to write it out!
Pick up 6 sts from between markers, purlwise.
Work in stst for 10 rows, you should be about to start a purl row. Now the short rows begin!
Row 1: Slip 1, P5
Row 2: K5, w&t
Row 3: P5
Row 4: K5, w&t
Row 5: Slip 1, P4
Row 6: K4, w&t
Row 7: P4
Row 8: K4, w&t
Row 9: Slip 1, P3
Row 10: K3, w&t
Row 11: P3
Row 12: K3, w&t
Row 13: Slip 1, P2

NECK (Part 2): The flat knitting is almost over, I promise! Take your two needles that have the stitches from the side of the head and join the two sides, purling the wraps together with the stitches. Turn and knit across, picking up the wraps and knitting them with their respective stitches. Turn and purl across the row, and you’re ready to start. You should have 12 stitches.
Now, take these stitches and join them with the stitches from the crown (remember those?)by knitting across the crown stitches. Then K around, working until you’re at the middle of the crown stitches again. PM, since this is going to be the beginning of your round.
NECK (Part 3): Work in stst for 9 rounds.

BODY: The shaping accounts for a flat area in the tummy and makes the tail curve J
Round 1: *K1 m1 K1 m1 K1* Repeat * to * until end of round.
Round 2, 3: K
Round 4: *K1 m1 K5 m1 K1*, K7, Repeat * to * until end of round.
Round 5,6: K
Round 7: *K1 m1 K7 m1 K1* K7, Repeat * to * until end of round.
Knit 10 rounds.
TAIL: This is basically an asymmetrical decrease that, if stuffed right should have a slight curve.
Round 1: SSK, K to last 2 sts, k2tog
Round 2, 3: K
Round 4: K8 k2tog K7 SSK k8
Round 5: K
Round 6: K7 k2tog K7 SSK K7
Round 7: K
Round 8: K6 k2tog K7 SSK K6
Round 9: K
Round 10: K5 k2tog SSK K3 k2tog SSK K5
Round 11: K
Round 12: K4 k2tog K5 SSK K4
Round 13: K
Round 14: K3 k2tog SSK K1 k2tog SSK K3
K 5 rounds.
Round 19: K2 k2tog K3 SSK K2
K 5 rounds.
Round 24: [k2tog] 3 times
K 2 rounds. Cut yarn and thread through live sts, pulling tight and sewing in the end. You’ve finished the body!

ARMS
On Dino’s chest you should see an area where there are 3 increases in a straight line. Pick up the arm stitches here, or wherever you want. Instructions are the same for both arms.
Pick up six sts, 3 on top and 3 on bottom. Divide between 3 needles (2-2-2)
Join, K for 10 rounds.
Hand: (At this point, if you want to insert armature wire or pipe cleaners for pose-able arms, or if you want to stuff the arms gently, now is the best time.)
Round 1: [K1 m1] around.
K 3 rounds.
Round 4: [k2tog] around. You should have six stitches again. Stuff the hand area.
Last round (whether you make hands or not): [k2tog] around.
Cut the yarn and weave it through the remaining live stitches, then pull tight and weave in. Do it all again for your second arm.

LEGS
The legs are knit separately and then sewn onto the body. There’s a difference between the two because I think one side of the flat circle looks better than the other (the decrease side, feel free to argue this.)
Cast on one stitch. K1P1K1 into the same stitch.
Row 1: P
Row 2: [Kfb] all stitches.
Row 3: P
Row 4: [Kfb] all stitches.
Join, K around.
After the join: Round 1: [K1 m1] around
Round 2: K
Repeat this once, then your ready for your decrease.
Decreases:
K 8 in scrap yarn, then slip these sts back onto the left needle and K over them. Finish the round.
Round 1: K
Round 2: [k2tog] around.
Repeat these two rounds 2 times, then cut yarn and pull through the live stitches.

FOOT: Unravel the scrap yarn and pick up the resulting live stitches, plus two on either side of the new stitches. K these, then at the end of the round cast on 16 stitches, and join. FOR THE SECOND FOOT: Cast on your stitches at the end of the first needle, instead of the second, so the foot is facing the other direction.
BOTH FEET: K 5 rounds, then graft the live stitches together, as well as the stitches at the top of the foot. Stuff the entire leg before you finish grafting!

FINISHING
1. Sew up the four seams at the head: two on the top and two at the jaw. Before your finish sewing, stuff the head and body.
2. Sew both legs to the body, wherever you think looks best.
3. Add eyes, which can be buttons or toy eyes (or embroidered if you’re dealing with wee ones.)
4. Add on any other extras (eye patches, clothes, scarves, appliqué…) since Dino loves dressing up.
5. Put Dino somewhere where passersby can compliment your good work!


A bit of PR: All I ask of you, if you should choose to use one of my patterns, is that you please tell me after you post it up somewhere (blog, forum, anything), and please send me a picture if you make one! I can be reached on ravelry as Alyoops or via email at lynough@gmail.com. This pattern is copyright 2010 Alyssa Lynough. Please do not re-publish or market without permission from the author.

24 comments:

  1. I was a little intimidated by your description of the pattern, but I think a medium knit-experienced person could definitely whip it up. You should put a little story in the begining about the silly questions that (nameless) have asked, leading to your wit winthin the pattern, to tie it all together. Everybody loves a pattern with a story :-D

    Thank you for the freebie. I'd love to see it in so many other colors and the button eyes are just too cute.

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  2. He's fantastic! :-D Thanks for the free pattern! :-)

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  3. Thank you for the pattern! Definitely something I'll have to knit.

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  4. Wow Alyssa this little guy is so cute, thanks so much for the freebie. x

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  5. super cute! how big is your finished one?

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  6. My son will love it. My only ? though is can it be knot flat?
    thanks

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  7. thanks for the pattern...been looking for a free dino for a while! :-)

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  8. thanks for the pattern...been looking for a free dino for a while! :-)

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  9. Wow! So cute! What a great toy to knit up for a boy. Thanks for the free pattern. I will have to put this on my to-do list.

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  10. Hey there...thanks for the dino pattern...my daughter will love it for her new baby...hope it's a boy, cause she is crazy in love with dinosaurs!!!

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  11. Posting this on my blog as a featured pattern. I am in love with your dino pattern and will be making one soon for my lil' man. Thank you and stop by and check it out tomorrow.
    http://maxwellsmommy.com

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  12. Thank you soooo much, he's adorable !!
    I will do it verry fast <3

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  13. Hi, brilliant little chap thank you. I've made a couple but can't figure out the first section of the body. The 12 stitches from the side of the head with the 5 from the crown make 17 and i can't get them to match with the next step k1m1k1m1k1. Please help! I think after this there should be 21 stitches from this point..
    Lucy

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lucy,

      I'm aware this is many years after your initial post, but I thought I'd reply anyway in case anyone else reads this.

      I ran into exactly the same problem you did - I couldn't get the numbers of stitches per row to line up. Like you, the *K1 m1 K1 m1 K1* didn't match with the 17 stitches I had in the neck; I wondered whether I should have brought in the single stitch that started the crown (giving a round-divisible 18 stitches which would output 30 stitches at the end of the row) but then it didn't divide properly into the next increase row (body round 4, requiring, as far as I could see, 28 stitches). Finally, I reasoned out (like you) that there must be 21 stitches at this point and, assuming that the body was symmetrical, the best explanation was that the instructions for body line 1 were missing a key intermediate knit number to bring it up to the correct stitches (just like is seen in lines 4 and 7 in the body.

      As such, I believe (though I may be wrong) that the CORRECT line 1 of the body should read:

      Round 1: *K1 m1 K1 m1 K1*, K11, Repeat * to * until end of round.

      and not the current:

      Round 1: *K1 m1 K1 m1 K1* Repeat * to * until end of round.

      With this modification, I got the stitch counts from the body and tail to all line up correctly. I hope that makes sense and helps - it took me a while to put that together.

      Having solved this problem, however, I've hit another one at the end of the tail where I'm not sure how you finish Round 19 with 9 stitches (K2 k2tog K3 SSK K2), knit 5 rounds then complete round 24 with [k2tog] 3 times, suggesting 6 stitches in the round . . . ?

      My best guess at the moment is that it's supposed to be [k2tog K1] three times OR [k2tog] 3 times K3 or something, but I'm just not sure.

      It's a very pretty little pattern but, given that it already includes some corrections, I definitely feel like it could do with a significant rewrite to clean up all the errors . . .

      Delete
    2. On a separate note, I had an initial suspicion that the instructions for the sides of the head were oriented incorrectly as, when I first did it, I ended up with them the wrong way round, having in the end to rip them back to the "knit 10 rows" stage and then just doing it intuitively rather than off the instructions.

      I now suspect that the instructions aren't necessarily wrong per say, but that the cunfusion arises from it not being entirely clear whether the initial "pick-up 6 stitches" included just the "pick-up" step or a "pick-up and knit" step, which would change the row count and, consequently, the orientation of the decreases at the end of these sections.

      If you're confused on this like I was, the easiest way is, at the end of the "knit 10 rows", just make sure that your first slip stitch (and consequently your wraps and turns), whether you're knitting or purling, happens on the side of the row closest to the live stitches from the end of the crown section.

      I hope that helps somewhat.

      Delete
    3. Ugh, per se, per se! Stupid autocorrect, let my latin live!

      Delete
  14. Thank you so much for the free pattern. My little cousin is obsessed with dinosaurs and will be so excited to get his own!

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  15. Thank you so much for sharing this pattern. I have linked to it from my blog http://wightcatwools.wordpress.com Hope thats ok :) Amanda x

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  16. I love this little dino. He was featured today on the at play blog
    www.atplayonline.com

    And don't forget you can submit all your free knitting patterns at www.knittingatplay.com

    Megan

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  17. I really wish your pattern instructions were more descriptive and that you had pictures to go along with them. This pattern is confusing at best. Maybe you should do a rewrite? I have done projects far more difficult than this one yet I can barely figure out how to put this little guy together...

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  18. I've been knitting well over 50 years, and never once have I seen the abbreviation "w&t". I realize it's 3am and I'm tired - but I've no clue.

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  19. I THINK YOU WILL FIND W&T MEANS WRAP AND TURN - WELL THATS WHAT I WORKED IT OUT AS. HOPE THAT HELPS.

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  20. Would love to try this but as a beginner the instructions are a bit confusing for me 😒 at moment I'm used to instructions saying how many stitches then how many rows to do

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