Vote in this year’s amigurumipatterns.net design contest and you could win 100 must-have minis by Yarn and Colors!!! The 2 pictures above are my entries and it would make me super happy to get your votes!!
The theme for this year’s contest is prehistoric times. My immediate thought when I saw that was to make something less common than the obvious dinosaur and caveman that come to mind with the theme. But it’s an extremely busy time of year for me – for the first time ever I’m making some decorations for my own Christmas tree, I also have Comet the Unicorn’s massive crochet-along on the go (which you can still join in), AND I’m busy redecorating my fiance’s house for when we move in together in April (did I mention that’s because we’re getting married in April and I also haven’t done much towards wedding planning yet either ?)!!!
Phew!
So I had to design something that wouldn’t bee too time consuming. I wouldn’t have time for the beautiful saber tooth tiger or woolly mammoth living in my head.
So I looked at my existing designs. I ended up using Orbit the Dragon, minus the ears and horns to make a baby dinosaur, because I was also dying to try out some mini crochet after making my very first mini, Hubble the Squid!!
I just happened to find some crochet no.5 in the exact same colour as my Orbit the Dragon Expansion Pack, which would make the perfect baby for her! Photographed just right, they would look like a pair of dinos instead of a dragon and a dino.
That was a great solution for my first design to enter, but I wanted to enter a new design as well. I always planned to recycle Orbit’s design into a triceratops so I got some variegated crochet no.5 for a tiny triceratops in a different colour to the first dino. When I sat down to actually design it I thought, “I’m just getting used to these tiny hooks and thin thread and I can’t work very fast with them yet… I’m not sure I actually want to design something with it. And in the end, it’ll be cute, but could it win a contest? Probably not.”
Back to the drawing board. What else could I do that would be quick but ridiculously adorable, and stand out from the crowd?!?!
A ginormous, smiling baby triceratops of course!!! I could use Atlas the Lion Cub as the base for my design and just alter it to be a chunky dinosaur instead!
Well, everything went very smoothly and most parts came out perfect the first time round. Even so, she took a very long time to make because all her pieces are very big, they were all new designs I had to figure out, and I had to record everything as I went so that I can publish the pattern for you later! She’s almost too big for my photo backdrop!
I had to redo her cheeks in a few different colours before the palette looked good. The hardest part was the frill on the back of her head – that shape is not easy to make and it takes a lot of trial and error. Because she’s so enormous, her frill is 160 stitches per row and it takes and least 10 rows before you know if the shape is coming out right or not. I had to pull it out a few times and redo hours of work. You can see some progress shots here on my Instagram.
Eventually I ran out of time and settled on the shape that you see pictured. The story is that she’s a baby so her frill hasn’t grown into the big spoon shape that adults have. I think she’s very cute anyway but I will try to improve it when I write up the pattern for release next year!
Her eyes are felted, which is the best way to do amigurumi eyes. I’ve had SO MANY requests for a tutorial on this and I’d love to get a video tutorial channel going for you guys but I need a good camera first. So I’m planning to start a Patreon account for funding. I want to make sure I do it all properly so there’s some planning be done before I launch but if you’d be interested in supporting it, please join my mailing list HERE and I’ll let you know when it’s up and running!
I would be so very happy to get your vote in this design contest!!!
Please share this post with your friends and crochet groups so they can vote too (there are sharing buttons at the bottom of this post)! I’ll be writing up Gravity’s pattern in January so she’s due for release early next year. Join my mailing list to be notified when new patterns are released.
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Omg you sure do have a lot on your plate,I voted for both of your entries, I wish I could vote more than once because I sure would. Your an amazing designer, I wish I had half of your talent to design. It is my hope to design one day. Happy wedding planning,home decorating,pattern writing and best of luck on winning the contest. KIM Insta friend
Thanks Kim, I appreciate your votes! 🙂
Is there any chance you’ll put those two patterns (dinosaur and baby) up in Etsy? They are so precious!
Michelle, the dinosaur with the baby is already available in my Etsy shop, it’s called Orbit the Dragon: https://www.etsy.com/listing/641683509/orbit-the-dragon-bundle-pack-amigurumi
The triceratops pattern will be available in about a month or so, I’m busy writing the pattern as we speak 🙂
Is the triceratops pattern available yet and how big does it measure please thank you
Absolutely cannot wait for the Triceratops.
I joined the Orbit crochet-along when it was first released, and adored it!
Love your triceratops is there any chance your pattern is up on Etsy yet
Hi Joyce! Unfortunately it’s not out just yet. I’ve recently finished writing it so right now it’s being tested so it’s due for release around mid August. If you’re on my mailing list you’ll get an email notification when I release the pattern 😉 projectarian.com/subscribe