I was invited to design an amigurumi dragon and write its pattern for the fantasy section of Scheepjes’ YARN bookazine! The bookazine’s theme was set to “fantasy and the Metaverse”, so I fittingly named my dragon Crypto. The brief was a large dragon with a fluid body that looks like it could wrap around a bed post. (You can decide if I did it justice!)
My patterns are usually for very large amigurumi, the documents of detailed and the designs can be quite complex, making them not very publication-friendly! So part of the challenge with Crypto was to write a pattern short and simple enough to fit in a magazine but still be the kind of model you’d expect from Projectarian – while sticking to the brief of course! Let’s start with the concept: I worked up a twisty test-body and scribbled my character on top.
Scheepjes suggested their Scrumptious and Truly Scrumptious yarns for this project, which are made from recycled material and I found them nice to work with. To make a big dragon and a condensed pattern, I decided to double-strand the Truly Scrumptious for bulk. That gives us a bigger model for fewer stitches, but the best part is the colour combos! Double-stranding with contrasting colours makes it look like real dragon skin!
I love Crypo’s spiralling tail and twisty neck, but his arms and legs are definitely my favorite!
Crypto is my first amigurumi that has menaging eyes rather than friendly ones. I almost couldn’t resist but the brief made me feel like we needed a more serious face so Crypto has mean dragon eyes and I love them! I finished him off with some horns and fins, and a set of tiny wings before flying him off to the Netherlands, to his new home at Scheepjes HQ.
I hope you’ll give Crypto the Dragon’s pattern a try! Click here to get the pattern, exclusive to Scheepjes’ YARN Bookazine, issue #16: Shimmerland.
I’d love to see you make Crypto so please show me if you do! Use #CryptoTheDragon, tag @Projectarian on Instagram or you can post your dragon in my Facebook group.
Thanks for visiting and I’ll see you again soon. Please enjoy this gallery of the beautiful dragons my pattern testers made:
Attribution in order of appearance, with their Instagram handles:
Amy (@flyingduster), Yvonne (@silvertreecrochet), Reeta (@thestitchgame), Marilyn (@fish_marilyn), Leah (@watt.a.story), Heather (@heatherrosecrochet), Haylee (@hhhxoart), Halliki, Danielle (@daniellehanken)
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