Irresistible Dinosaurs

Over the first twenty years of my life, I am pretty sure my mom and grandma showed me how to crochet probably half a dozen times. It was something I really wanted to do, but just never stuck until I had my first job after college. Part of my Retreat Coordinator duties at a YMCA camp in the Poconos was waiting in the front office for hours every Friday night while groups checked it. It gave me dedicated time every week to focus on learning and developing the muscle memory to seal it in as a skill. My first project was an afghan that ended up a trapezoid. 

From there, I made hats and cowls, baby sweaters and more blankets (that were actual squares or rectangles). I even made up a pattern for a bacon scarf. I never felt the need to learn to knit until I came across Rebecca Danger's monster patterns--specifically her Daphne and Delilah momma and baby monster pattern (the momma has a pocket for the baby!). I just had to make my own. 

While the pattern is pretty much all stockinette, it also has more intermediate skills than a typical beginner pattern, like knitting in the round, magic loop, picking up stitches (for that cute pocket), and the kitchner stitch. It took some time, and several re-starts, but eventually I got it all figured out. From there, my knitting took off. Initially I made a lot more monsters, but have added in a robot, a yeti, dogs, three narwhals of varying sizes, and most recently two of Rebecca Danger's three dinosaur patterns (Sherman, the Square Dancing Stegosaurus and Terrence, the Tap-Dancing T-Rex). 

This weekend I cast on Basil, the Boogie-Woogie Brontosaurus, and I cannot tell you how excited I am for this dino! I'm using Berroco Comfort in five solid colors held with a multicolor skein for the body. Since I'm holding the yarn double, I'm using US Size 10 needles, which means this guy is going to be BIG. I'm keeping the stripes in the pattern as written, but alternating between the five solid colors for more of a rainbow effect rather than using two colors as the pattern samples show. I'm planning to make the head and the feet all solid colors so we'll see how it goes! Overall, it's going to be a really fun and different knit after the sweaters I was more focused on last year. 

Basil is an upcoming class (March 15th at 10:30am) if you're looking to change up your knitting routine, learn new skills, or make a fun gift for a special kid in your life. We'll be learning the basics of knit toys, knitting in the round, jogless stripes, working a gusset, and using a whipstitch to attach the legs. The Artful Yarn has several great yarns available use for this project (including one that will stripe for you if you'd rather not alternate colors!) You'll want to check out West Yorkshire Spinners' Bo Peep DK yarn. And I'll be sure to bring Basil into the shop once he's finished!  Looking forward to seeing you in our class in March! You can register by clicking this link!

See you there,
Erin