What Cheer, Netop?

Revised 27 December 2012 to add line numbers and make other minor adjustments. This pattern is now also online at http://music.jwgh.org/knitting/stegosaurus.html, to protect against Livejournal outages.

Finished Measurements

• length: approx. 14 inches
• height: approx. 9 1/2 inches
• width: approx. 6 inches

Materials

• 130 yards worsted (for this one I used Knit Picks Panache, about a skein and a half of the green and a half-skein of the blue)
• a couple of hanks of yarn for the mouth and eyes

• #6 straight needles (a few sizes smaller than recommended for the yarn)
  a pair of #6 DPNs (to make icord)
• embroidery needle
• 10 large heavy green guitar picks (optional, to stiffen back plates)
• polyfill fiber

Pattern notes:

I've put up lots of pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwgh/sets/72157603888991257/ People making knitted stegosauri of their own might find them useful. Ravelry users can find the pattern here.

The instructions and photos show Stegosauruses made using worsted yarn, but I've also had pleasing results using bulky yarn with the same size needles. Or use size 1s and sock yarn for a mini Stegosaurus!

The pictures all show the Stegosaurus being sewn together knit side out, but you can also do it purl side out to get a different texture, which I find in some ways preferable. An example of what this looks like can be found here.

When you encounter 'w&t' in the instructions, use whatever technique you prefer to wrap and turn the yarn. One method is described here.

Body

• Cast on 5 stitches, leaving long (24 inch or so) tail for sewing shut.
• Rows 1-6:    Work 6 rows
• Row 7:    K1, Kfb, K1, Kfb, K1 (7 st)
• Rows 8-12:    Work 5 rows
• Row 13:    K1, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K1 (9 st)
• Rows 14-18:    Work 5 rows
• Row 19:    K1, Kfb, K5, Kfb, K1 (11 st)
• Rows 20-24:    Work 5 rows
• Row 25:    K2, Kfb, K5, Kfb, K2 (13 st)
• Rows 26-30:    Work 5 rows
• Row 31:    K2, Kfb, K7, Kfb, K2 (15 st)
• Rows 32-36:    Work 5 rows
• Row 37:    K3, Kfb, K7, Kfb, K3 (17 st)
• Rows 38-40:    Work 3 rows
• Row 41:    K3, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K3 (20 st)
• Rows 42-44:    Work 3 rows
• Row 45:    K4, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K5, Kfb, K4 (23 st)
• Row 46:    Work 1 row
• Row 47:    K4, Kfb, K6, Kfb, K6, Kfb, K4 (26 st)
• Row 48:    Work 1 row
• Row 49:    K5, Kfb, K6, Kfb, K7, Kfb, K5 (29 st)
• Row 50:    P18, w&t, K7, w&t, P to end
• Row 51:    K7, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K5, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K7 (33 st)
• Row 52:    Work 1 row
• Row 53:    K8, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K7, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K8 (37 st)
• Row 54:    P22, w&t, K7, w&t, P22
• Row 55:    K8, Kfb, K2, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K5, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K2, Kfb, K8 (43 st)
• Row 56:    P26, w&t, K9, w&t, P26
• Row 57:    K8, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K7, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K8 (49 st)
• Row 58:    P30, w&t, K11, w&t, P30
• Row 59:    K10, (Kfb, K2)x3, Kfb, K9, (Kfb, K2)x3, Kfb, K10 (57 st)
• Row 60:    P35, w&t, K13, w&t, P35
• Row 61:    K13, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K11, Kfb, K4, Kfb, K3, Kfb, K13 (63 st)
• Row 62:    P38, w&t, K13, w&t, P38
• Row 63:    K15, Kfb, K9, Kfb, K11, Kfb, K9, Kfb, K15 (67 st)
• Row 64:    P41, w&t, K15, w&t, P41
• Row 65:    K14, Kfb, K11, Kfb, K13, Kfb, K11, Kfb, K14 (71 st)
• Row 66:    P43, w&t, K15, w&t, P43
• Rows 67-69: Work 3 rows
• Row 70:    P43, w&t, K15, w&t, P43
• Row 71:    K14, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K15, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K14 (67 st)
• Row 72:    P41, w&t, K15, w&t, P41
• Row 73:    K15, K2tog, K8, K2tog, K13, K2tog, K8, K2tog, K15 (63 st)
• Row 74:    P38, w&t, K13, w&t, P38
• Row 75:    K13, (K2tog,K3)x2, K2tog, K13, (K2tog, K3)x2, K2tog, K13 (57 st)
• Row 76:    P35, w&t, K13, w&t, P35
• Row 77:    K10, (K2tog, K2)x3, K2tog, K9, (K2tog, K2)x3, K2tog, K10 (49 st)
• Row 78:    P30, w&t, K11, w&t, P30
• Row 79:    K8, (K2tog, K3)x2, K2tog, K9, (K2tog, K3)x2, K2tog, K8 (43 st)
• Row 80:    Work 1 row
• Row 81:    K8, K2tog, (K2, K2tog)x2, K7, (K2tog, K2)x2, K2tog, K8 (37 st)
• Row 82:    P22, w&t, K7, w&t, P22
• Row 83:    K8, K2tog, K3, K2tog, K7, K2tog, K3, K2tog, K8 (33 st)
• Row 84:    Work 1 row
• Row 85:    K7, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K7, K2tog, K2, K2tog, K7 (29 st)
• Row 86:    P18, w&t, K7, w&t, P to end
• Row 87:    K5, K2tog, K7, K2tog, K6, K2tog, K5 (26 st)
• Rows 88-92:    Work 5 rows
• Continuing directly on from row 92, finish knitting the head as follows:
  • K1, K2tog, K21, w&t
  • P2tog, P19, w&t
  • K2tog, K17, w&t
  • P2tog, P15, w&t
  • K2tog, K13, w&t
  • P2tog, P11, w&t
  • K2tog, K9, w&t
  • P2tog, P7, w&t
  • K2tog, K5, w&t
  • P2tog, P3, w&t
  • K2tog, K2tog, turn
  • P to end
  • K2 tog to end
  • P2tog, P3tog, P2tog
  • Break yarn, leaving long (24 inch or so) tail to sew shut
  • Thread yarn through remaining three stitches.

At this point it looks something like this:

Sew bottom edge together from each end, leaving hole for stuffing (and with stockinette side out).

Stuff, then finish sewing shut.

Legs (make 4)

• Row 1:    Cast on 16 stitches, leaving 8-inch tail to attach leg to body
• Rows 2-10:    Work in stockenette 8 rows.
• Row 11:    Cast off 12 stitches, finish row.
• Rows 12-15:    Work remaining stitches in stockinette (starting on the wrong side) for 4 rows (ending with knit row).
• Cast off remaining stitches purlwise, leaving 8-inch tail to sew together.

Sew together, using these photos as a guide:

Stuff, attach to body.

Back plates (make 10)

Make two of the following, leaving a 18 inch tail on the second.

1. Cast on 4 stitches. Work the following in garter stitch.
2. Rows 1-2:    Knit two rows.
3. Row 3:    Kfb, K2, Kfb
4. Rows 4-5:    Knit two rows.
5. Row 6:    Kfb, K4, Kfb
6. Row 7:    Knit one row.
7. Row 8:    K2tog, K4, K2tog
8. Cast off.

After you've made both, sew the two together around the edge, leaving the cast-off edge unsewn, using these photos as a guide:

Then sew to the back of the Stegosaurus:

If you want to make the backplates extra stiff you can insert a guitar pick point-first before attaching each back plate. This is not really necessary, though.

Spikes (make 4)

On two DP needles, cast on 3 stitches and work as i-cord for 6 rows. Cast off. Attach to tail:

Face

Embroider face.

I have heard from plorkwort that the socks have arrived and more or less fit, so now it is time to reveal the ...

Secrets of Making Doctor Who Socks

plorkwort gave me a copy of the Doctor Who Pattern Book for Christmas last year. Later, she noticed the Knitty Very Tall Socks pattern and mentioned that if she were more of a knitter she would make a pair using the stripes and relative dimensions from the Tom Baker-era Doctor Who scarf. At last, an opportunity to repay her thoughtfulness!

A few things had to be worked out, though. First, there was the question of which scarf pattern to use. After some consideration, I decided not to use the pattern in the Pattern Book but to instead go with Chris Brimelow's. The next question was which season scarf pattern to go with (as the scarf became damaged it was altered somewhat), but it seemed obvious that I should go with the original Season 12 pattern.

I also decided that instead of making the socks identical I would make them each take up about half of the original scarf pattern. The conceit would be that the sock would start at the end of one sock, go down into the shoe, emerge from the other shoe, and continue up to the other end. I thought this would look nicer and more Doctor Who-like, would have the added advantage that I would be able to make the individual stripes wider, and would mean that it wouldn't be too big a deal if I didn't get the conversions quite right.

Next to do the math. After making a bunch of simplifying assumptions I multiplied together a bunch of conversion factors and, surprisingly, ended up with a ratio of 2:1, meaning that every two rows of the original scarf would correspond to one row of sock. Also happily the original scarf was done in garter stitch, with each color being used on an even number of rows. And, finally, Chris Brimelow's pattern site even had a diagram with the number of rows divided by two. This made it all very, very convenient.

To select the yarn, I took a printout of a photo of the scarf and tried to match colors as best I could, which approach worked pretty well, I think. The Knitty pattern calls for cheap acrylic yarn; I ended up getting a couple of different kinds at a couple of different stores.

The knitting was pretty straightforward. A few notes:

• Note that the Knitty pattern calls for five #2 needles, not a set of number fives as I initially misread.
• In the 'Work Short-Row Heel Shaping' section there's a line which says:

  Row 5 [WS]: Sl1 pwise, p8, p2tog, turn.

  It should instead say:

  Row 5 [WS]: Sl1 pwise, p8, p2tog, p1, turn.

• When it comes time to knit the heel flap, continue with the same color for the entire flap instead of trying to continue the stripes. The problem isn't so much that it's difficult to continue the stripes as that you end up with a lot of loose ends, which is probably not desirable for the part of the sock that you're actually going to walk on. (Although there are probably tricks to get around this if you are a better knitter than I am.) Instead, do the heel in a single color and resume counting rows once you start knitting the top of the sock again (in the final step before the 'Shape Instep' section).
• Note that these socks are both very warm and very heavy. A sturdy garter belt will be required!

Update: plorkwort has kindly provided some pictures of the socks being worn!