knitted Diplocaulus instructions
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As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know!
Click here to see this pattern's Ravelry page, which will allow you to add it to your queue if you have a Ravelry account.
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.
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.
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.
Sew together, using these photos as a guide:
Stuff, attach to body.
Make two of the following, leaving a 18 inch tail on the second.
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.
On two DP needles, cast on 3 stitches and work as i-cord for 6 rows. Cast off. Attach to tail:
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 ...
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:
Row 5 [WS]: Sl1 pwise, p8, p2tog, turn.It should instead say:
Row 5 [WS]: Sl1 pwise, p8, p2tog, p1, turn.
Update: plorkwort has kindly provided some pictures of the socks being worn!