Terrible Lizards

I mentioned the other day that I had a few Dinosaurs to tell you all about.  Well, here we are.

Naturally, I have been researching Dinosaurs, I think we probably know more about Dinosaurs than either Unicorns or Dragons because of all of the evidence that they actually walked the earth. However, did you know that there are many group-terms for Dinosaurs, for instance, a flock, a gaggle, a colony, a murder - these terms are more readily applied to the more bird-like ones? Other collective nouns are a herd, a band, a pride, and a pack - these are more readily used for the larger Dinosaurs.

The word Dinosaur is said the mean 'Terrible Lizard'. Apparently when scientists first discovered Dinosaur fossils, they imagined them to be the remains of huge lizards from the past.

As with both the Unicorn pattern and the Dragon pattern, this one is from 'Knitting by Post' and this one is called 'Dinky Dino Dinosaur' and is also available from Ravelry.  All of my Dinosaurs are made in Double Knit yarn but some have come out larger than others.

I know that I have taken liberties with the colours but no one really knows what colour they were, although probably not peach or violet!

This green one with yellow spikes was my first attempt.

This violet Dinosaur is much smaller than the rest, I think he is quite sweet.

I could tell that I was running out of grey yarn so I gave this one a peach snout to match his spikes, I think he has pulled the look off.

Although my photographs do not give you a clear back view of these dinosaurs I have made mine slightly different to the pattern, they have a double row of spikes down their back so that they more closely resemble a Stegosaurus, as this particular Dinosaur is a favourite of my niece Lucy (can you guess which one she has?).  The remaining Dinosaurs have been put away for Christmas.

I also added nostrils to my bunch, I think it gives their face more character.

Dionne

If You go Down to the Woods Today

Recently I went away for a few days, although I took my knitting bag with me, I was not expecting to have mach spare time, so I did not pack a lot of yarn.  However, the weather was not very good and I found myself at a loose end and these guys were the result!

Four teddy bears from 'Little Cotton Rabbits stable, they were all based on their 'boy bear' pattern, which is available from Ravelry.  I used odds and ends of Aran yarn to make the bears and DK for their clothes.

As you can see from this strange black and white bear, I did not have enough of some of the yarns so I mixed and matched.

I tried to create a heart on this jumper by alternating the colours in the stripes. 

This little bear has an Aran style jumper with a bear-head button.

Sadly my photograph does not do justice to this pretty lilac butterfly.

Not bad for a few rainy days!

Dionne

A Single Yellow Primrose

You may recall that at the start of the year I shared a Mary Jane's Tearoom rabbit called 'Primrose', which I had made for my 'bestie'.  I have at last got around to showing you the 'Primrose Rabbit' I had made for myself.

My friend named her Primrose Rabbit 'Dulcie' (here she is with my Primrose Rabbit).  They look so sweet together, don't you agree?

Where Dulcie is dressed in shades of pink, Primrose is all in yellow, from her hair slides to her Mary Jane shoes.  

As you can see, I made three of the knitted flowers so she can wear them in her 'hair' or as a brooch or pin.

  All of her clothes are made of 4 ply cotton.

The jumper has a sweet primrose design on the chest and a darker checkered boarder around the cuffs and waist.

(I took a close-up so you can see the flower better.)

Her knickerbockers have a picot edge and a slit in the back for her tail to go through ....

 ... as indeed do her knickers.

I had one of my little artistic moments with her knickers and added a small floral motif around the legs.

Her Mary Jane style shoes have a strap and matching tiny button fastening.

The hair slide/brooch has three pink seed pearls at the centre.  I stitched each to a pin so they can be moved around - I currently have one fastened at her waist to stop her jumper riding up.  I am sure I do not know what they get up to when I am not looking but every time I turned around her jumper was halfway up her chest!

She is made of 100% alpaca wool and she stands approximately 15.5 inches high (40cm) in her stocking feet ...

... and has a great big fluffy tail.

You probably spotted that Primrose also has stripy stockinged legs, these are made in double knot cotton..

Dionne


Some of the other patterns I have made from this series are:-

Anaka Rabbit

Bluebell Rabbit

Bo Rabbit
Candy Bear
Daisy Bear
Donovan Bear
Dulci Rabbit

Romeo Bear

My First Flight

Do you remember my post about Unicorns, where I explained that the collective noun for a group of Unicorns is a Blessing? Well, today I have a group of Dragons to share with you and I have discovered that I am spoilt for choice as to what to call them. Among the collective nouns for Dragons we have a flight of Dragons; a weyr of Dragons; a school of Dragons; a doom of Dragons; and a wing of Dragons. Also, baby Dragons are called whelps, and are born in nests known as roosts. When they reach adolescence, they are called fledglings. Who knew that there is so much information out there on something which is mythical?

You may have spotted that this my dragons have a striking similarity to the Unicorns, that is because the knitting pattern is from the same website - 'Knitting by Post' .  This pattern is called 'Dave the Dragon' and is available from Ravelry.

As you can see from the dark red dragon, the dragons in this pattern, have a rather silly looking sticky out tongue, which, between the two of us, I did not really like ...

So, I tried making the tongue on my next Dragon slightly shorter, but I was still unhappy with the look.  What do you think?

In the end I dropped the tongue and added nostrils, as you can see in this mint coloured Dragon.  (I quite liked the nostrils, so I went back and added them to the dark green and red Dragons.)

I next made a yellow Dragon with black spikes.  After all, who can say what colour Dragons should be?

Finally, my favourite, a baby blue Dragon with dark blue spikes and sparkly white wings.

I almost forgot to tell you that I made the Dragons because I felt that little boys would probably not want a Unicorn for Christmas.  So all the young boys in the family will be getting either a Dragon or a Dinosaur (spoiler alert) for Christmas .

I hope you have a great week.

Dionne

Patch

Do you remember the Little Cotton Rabbit Fox I posted two or three weeks ago?  Well, the Little Cotton Rabbit series of patterns do not include a dog pattern, which seems rather odd to me because there is a patter for both a Boy Cat and a Girl Cat.

So, I decided to make the Boy Fox in a different colour to see if it would look like a dog.

I thought a little black and white dog would look good until I realised that a black nose on a black background would not show up.  I decided to stitched his nose in pink and was feeling quite pleased with myself until my husband pointed out that no dog has a pink nose.  Opps!

His ears are made in three colours - black with a white tip and a pink lining.  I tried to make his tail slimmer than the fox tail but I think it should have been even slimmer.

I made him a jumper with a pretty blue sail boat on the front and matching blue shorts.

Here he is with his foxy friend.  Both the fox and the my black and whits dog are made in Aran weight yarn and their clothes were made from double knit.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Dionne

My Blessing

Did you know that the collective noun for a group of unicorns is a 'Blessing'?  And a baby unicorn is called either a 'sparkle' or a 'shimmer'?  I did not before I picked up my needles and made my first baby unicorn, then curiosity got the better of me and I looked it up.  

This enchanting pattern from 'Knitting by Post' is called Stardust the Unicorn and is available from Ravelry.  

After I had made my first Sparkle I became obsessed and found myself making one in every pastel colour (and one or two other colours) I have in my extensive stash of knitting yarn ......

Cream ...... or is the lemon one?

Violet

Aqua

Mint

Baby Pink

Lilac

Lemon - or could this be the cream one?

Baby Blue

Magenta

Peach

As you can see they all have their own personality but, as much as I loved having them around, my work space soon became over run with little unicorns and I needed to put them somewhere same whilst I finished the project. 

I found a cardboard box, which would keep them clean and prevent them from being squashed out of shape.  The trouble was they would stare at me accusingly from across my work room, making me feel very guilty about putting them away.  I even started to imaging that I could hear their little hooves tapping on the cardboard as the jostled for prime position to look daggers at me.

I have put them all safely away now until Christmas when they will each make their way into the Christmas stocking of every little girl I know.  After all, who wouldn't want their own Sparkle?

Dionne