Prehistoric Post?

Well, not prehistoric, per se...but related to same. Last weekend, while I spent all that time in the car, I knitted three dinosaurs! I bought the pattern because I wanted to knit a T-rex for a co-worker's son, then (as often happens) I decided that the girls needed dinos, too. So, I rooted around in the stashed acrylic (Why is there so much acrylic in my stash? Oh, right...the toys, the toys! Oh, how I love to knit toys!), and I found some blue and orange, and some mystery, self-striping stuff, with bright pinks and blues and greens. I started right in with Mr. T-Stripex...

After knitting the whole body flat, as the pattern is written, I seamed it and decided to put it aside for a bit. The girls were getting closer, and I wanted to have something in hand for them when we arrived...so Ms. Stega-STRIPE-ous was up next! You know, I didn't even realize that this bright yarn was self striping until I started knitting...what a happy accident! Also, by complete coincidence, I had a bright yellow in the stash that was perfect for her spines. In no time at all (well, a few hours, to be honest) I had a squishy, stripey, dinosaur body!

I was so pleased with how this worked up that I dove right back into that yellow for her legs, which I also knit according to the pattern, stuffing and sewing on when they were finished. Her back legs splayed out a little too much, so I tacked them down, as for a jointed stuffed animal, stitching through both legs and the body a few times. You can see the little pucker, if you look closely. 

The Stega-STRIPE-ous looks fantastic, and it is now officially kid-approved!

So, what do you do when there are two girls but only one bright-and-stripey dinosaur? Well, you knit another, of course! Enter Ms. Tricera-STRIPEs! But this time, you're a little smarter, a little more experienced, and a little more adventurous! I knit the legs mostly as written, but rather than binding off the tops as written, I knit some short-rows and cinched them closed, much like the top of a hat. When all four legs were done, I stitched them to the body, the same way I had tacked down the Steg's back legs. Final result? Well, when the frill was done, we had a fully jointed (well, jointed at the shoulders and thighs), not-scary-and-cute-as-a-button Triceratops!

What did we do next? Well, we played the Triceratop Rock song, of course! (Go on. Click it. You know you want to know how to do this dance. You know you do!) Wasn't that fun? I'm a little sorry I didn't get pix of the girls dancing, but I was too busy dancing myself! The dinos? Notsomuch. But they still seemed happy enough.

They did have a question, however. "What about the T-rex? Will he ever get his arms and legs?" Valid question, so I worked on those and they were done by the time we pulled into the driveway at the end of the whirlwind weekend! (The cat, of course, was not impressed. Oh, cat.)

Wasn't that a fun trip? Prehistoric? Maybe not. But I think I'll knit these guys again...so super cute! Also, Triceratop Rock was a trip down memory lane for me...when Mork and Dollface were little, I had a cassette tape of fun dinosaur songs: Triceratop Rock, The Hungry Diplodocus, How Do You Spell Dinosaur? We played it over and over in the car...err minivan...when they were small, and our whole family could spell dinosaur by the time Dollface was 3. If your kid likes dinosaurs, you should check out these tunes...so fun, and perfect plays for the car. 

Thanks for stopping by! I think that is all I have for today. I know that I should clean something, or do the budget, or maybe cook a healthy meal, but it's been a long week. I think I will knit instead. Won't you join me?

Knit in Good Health!