Amigurumi Dinosaur Skeleton

Originally posted to my blog in March 2011

This craft project was a long time in the making: a 120cm (4') long amigurumi dinosaur skeleton, now suspended museum-style from our lounge ceiling.

It has 47 pieces and took 14 balls of wool!

I started it around three years ago, when we lived in the Emily Place apartment, inspired by the lovely high ceilings there. I took a long break after the body and head were done, because I got frustrated trying to make the legs, and just sat down recently determined to finish it. I had a couple more enforced breaks caused by yarn shortages, but finally it is DONE!

Another angle, with Pippin for scale.

It was all made freehand without a pattern, just a diagram of a Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus skeleton I printed from Google Image Search and a very rough scale, where 1cm on the printout = 8cm of crochet. I took a lot of anatomical liberties, some for aesthetics (e.g. the legs, my first try had more accurate shapes but didn't look right) and some for practicality (e.g. the nodules on the vertebrae, which were too numerous to make individually and turned into a ruffle to give the appearance of nodules).

It's composed of single crochet worked in spirals, with a few bits of slip stitching and half double crochet to make curves. The eye sockets are supported by a ping pong ball cut in half, to keep them concave, otherwise it's all just yarn (Cleckheaton Country 8-ply in shade 2234) and stuffing. I hung it from a few tiny hooks with invisible mending thread, and I think the result is very handsome :)