These adorable mini dinos are so fun and fast and easy to make. The free pattern is Mini Dino by MerryMakes. A member of my family gifted me this skein of bulky chenille yarn, so naturally I had to see how this pattern would work up in the bulky yarn using an 8mm hook. (There wasn't a label on the skein, so I don't know what brand or colorway this yarn is.)
This mini dino is made by following the same pattern as the smaller dinos, same stitch and row counts. The only difference is the size of the yarn and hook, which produced a dinosaur about 12 inches tall.
I had this one skein of colorful Red Heart Super Saver Color Block yarn in the Party Time colorway that I wanted to use to make something for Rose. Orange is featured prominently in the colorful skein, and orange is one of Rose's favorite colors.
At first I tried to see if there was enough yarn to make something to wear, like a "Housecoat of Many Colors" sort of thing. But the one skein wasn't enough for that, and apparently the colorway was discontinued, so I couldn't buy more.
Not enough yarn to make a cardigan or blanket
So then I had another idea: Why not make a giant Timothy T-rex for Rose by holding the colorful yarn double with a neutral gray and using an 8mm hook? And that's how this giant Timothy was born.
Timothy and friends
The pattern specifies to use 10mm safety eyes, but I didn't have any safety eyes on hand, so I used two 25mm black buttons from this kit that I found on Amazon. It has black buttons in a bunch of different sizes, so they are useful for lots of various projects. So far I have used these buttons for eyes on a few recent amigurumis: my Zoey Zebra and also my Halloween Melly Teddy Ragdolls Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat.
Holding the two colors of yarn together and working at this large gauge with an 8mm hook, my finished Timothy stands about 15 inches tall. I hope he will make a nice, snuggly companion for Rose!
Since the beginning of the year I have been in the middle of several large, long-term projects and felt like I needed to give myself a mental break and make something that works up super fast but also gives a finished product that is super satisfying.
This Mini-Dino designed by Mary of the MerryMakes blog turned out to be just the project that my weary heart needed. He is SO STINKIN' CUTE!!! And he was really fast and easy to make. I wuv him!!! I also love that Mary has a video tutorial that walks us through every step of the creation process.
I made mine with a 5.5mm hook, which is a larger hook than the pattern specifies, but I tend to crochet tighter than the average bear anyhow, so I think it worked out fine. At the gauge I was working, my dino turned out to be about 6.5 inches tall. For comparison, Mary's Mini-Dinos work up to be about 5 inches tall when made with worsted weight yarn and a 4mm hook. I was also using the yarn-over single crochet technique rather than the more traditional yarn-under single crochet technique that a lot of amigurumi makers use. Mary also works her dinos using the yarn-over single crochet, but I've read that if you use the yarn-under single crochet, your finished item will be slightly shorter than if you used the yarn-over single crochet.
The pattern also specifies to use 6mm safety eyes, but I didn't have any safety eyes on hand, so I used two 10mm black buttons from this kit that I found on Amazon last year. It has black buttons in a bunch of different sizes, so they are useful for lots of various projects. So far I have used these buttons for eyes on a few recent amigurumis: my Zoey Zebra and also my Halloween Melly Teddy Ragdolls Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat.
Just because he is soooo adorable, here's another picture of Neo posing on the coffee table with my Round Basket for Square Coasters. 😍
Neo turned out so cute that I decided he needed a friend, so I used a small scrap of Red Heart Super Saver in the Zebra colorway to make his friend Scoop. Scoop looks like newsprint from a newspaper, so that's how she got her name.
