weeza and the dinosaur

Rowr!

My best friend's eldest had his second birthday party this past Saturday. I'd already gotten him a pair of dinosaur rain boots (which he's dubbed his "monster boots"), but needed a liiiitle something extra to go with them.

Enter Mr. Stegs!

Can you believe something as cute as me no longer rules the world?

X-knits
Get your minds outta the gutter - it stands for X-treme! Mr. Stegs has two friends named Bronty and Trice in a threefer pattern by Jennifer of X-treme Knitting. It's fun, it's free, it's all kinds of fabulous!

The pattern calls for the dino toys to be knit flat, but it was Friday night and the thought of seaming this bad boy up had me growlin' like a caveman. After Googling about, I saw that pepperknit did hers in the round, so naturally, I followed suit!

It was pretty easy, really. Just did a magic cast-on and went from there. Those first few rounds were a little hinky, but other than that, it was a piece of cake. Or whatever dinosaurs ate back then.

In the round, it was a knit-stuff-knit-stuff process (using a spare dpn when I got down to the end of the tail), which was nice as the little guy sprang to life under my needles. And no seaming, whoo hoo!

See? I'm not so scary.

Steggy got back
To give him a punch of color, I used the unknown turquoise yarn I won from nonaknits for the spiney back. Deep in mod, I increased them up to 6 stitches instead of 5 to give them a little more umph and stopped a couple shy of the recommended 7 (probably coulda done one more, but didn't want to strain his wee little neck). Before sewing them on, I gave them a light steam block, which made a huge difference.

The legs were knit in the round as well, also per pepperknit's notes. (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?) Next time I make one of these dinos - and there will be a next time - I'll probably adjust the legs myself to make them a little more squat and flat-footed. Over time, I have a feeling Mr. Stegs here will start to splay like a hungover frat boy after an all-night kegger.

For the face, I used a bit of black yarn, made one eye, pulled the needle through the head to do the other eye, then in again and down to give him that goofy smile. That way, I only had to knot and tie off two ends instead of four.

Yaaarn
Karabella Aurora 8. So soft and squishy. If you only came with bigger balls. Er, in bigger balls.

That's a wrap
The moms at the birthday bash went nuts when they found out I knitted this myself. Even more so when they found out I did it the night before! (What can I say, there was nothing good on TV.) I mean really, what's not to love? He's fun, he's unique, he's a one-nighter (the good kind) that looks much more difficult finished than he actually is. And he may get some more dino friends to romp around the earth with soon.

Mr. Stegs
Pattern: Dinosaurs by X-treme Knitting
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8 in silver and black + Unknown turquoise er, wool?
Needle: Bryspun 7 dpns + H&S ebony 8, 16" (spiney back)
Mods: Knitted with worsted instead of dk, in the round instead of flat, up to 6 stitches for spiney back instead of 5
Lesson learned: Extinct, maybe. Knitstinct, never!