Dinosaurs – Kit Dunsmore's Blog

A T. Rex Dressed As Elizabeth I

For Halloween this year, Tiny the T. rex decided to be Elizabeth I of England. She looked through books until she found a dress she liked (the jewel encrusted gown of the Ditchley portrait), then asked her Aunt Rexie if she could help her with her costume.

qei-ditchley-portrait_web — The Ditchley portrait of Elizabeth I (ca. 1592)

Aunt Rexie took one look, sighed, and then got out her sewing kit. After all, she adores Tiny. She spent days putting “gems” and ribbon on fabric before she could even begin sewing the dress, but the end result, and the happy look on Tiny’s face, was well worth the effort.

trex_ditchley_cul_web — Tiny LOVES her dress! (Thanks, Aunt Rexie!)

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Note: This is probably the most elaborate costume I’ve ever made. What was yours?

Saving Dinosaurs, One Sweater At A Time

The Dinosaur Foundation wants to bring back the fascinating animals that went extinct 65 million years ago due to unfortunate circumstances beyond their control. Impossible you say? Not really. We have a simple three step plan that will have us all neck deep in dinosaurs in no time.

We know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Dinosaur Foundation, you’re nuts! Didn’t you see Jurassic Park? You DO NOT want to make dinosaurs from incomplete DNA!”

You’re right, we don’t. We want natural, organic, 100%-as-they-were-in-the-past dinosaurs, so we’re trying something a little different.

We’re knitting them sweaters.

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What’s the point?

To keep them warm, of course.

Every school kid knows that dinosaurs were wiped out when an asteroid hit the earth, filled the atmosphere with dust, and lowered the temperature around the world. If the dinosaurs had only had sweaters, they would have survived and would be with us here, today.

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So we’re busy knitting sweaters, while our physicist friends work on the time machine* we need to deliver them.

The Dinosaur Foundation’s Three Step Plan to Save the Dinosaurs:

1) Knit a bunch of sweaters. Really really big sweaters.
2) Invent a time machine.**
3) Take sweaters back to the dinosaurs before the asteroid hits.

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The Dinosaur Foundation is looking for dedicated knitters ready to take on this challenge. The good news: we’ll be using a time machine, so there’s really no deadline. Please let us know if you would like to help.

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*For those who think it’s impossible to build a time machine, scientists say it’s practically impossible, which means it’s at least a tiny little bit possible. We’re all optimists here at the Dinosaur Foundation. We believe that if we care enough, it can be done.
**For those who argue that we could just bring the dinosaurs back in a time machine without all this messing around with yarn: we don’t think so. We’ve agreed that building a time machine is practically impossible. A time machine that’s also big enough to transport dinosaurs? Not happening.

T. Rex Easter Bunny

TrexBunnyEars_web — Putting the Eeeeeee! in Easter

Aunt Rexie got surprised by how early Easter is this year. Her plans to knit Tiny a bunny suit were curtailed until all Tiny got was a set of ears. Fortunately, Tiny is a forgiving girl (despite that toothy grin). She loves her bunny hat and wishes everyone a happy Easter and lovely spring.

HappyEasterFlowers_web

Technical notes: Spud and Chloë fine sock wool on size 1 double-pointed needles. It took a few tries to get the ears in the right place. Even then, Tiny is the scariest bunny I’ve ever seen (even scarier than Monty Python’s killer rabbit).

Tiny the T. Rex: Santa’s Not-So-Little Helper

When Aunt Rexie asked Tiny what she wanted for Christmas, Tiny said, “I want to be an elf and help Santa make toys.” Being a loving aunt, Rexie got out the yarn and needles and knit Tiny her very own Christmas elf outfit.

tRexElfLeft_web

While she’s much better at sleeves than she used to be, it still takes Aunt Rexie several tries to get them right. At least she’s learned to adapt on the fly. When she made a legging that was too short, she turned it into a hat.

tRexElfRight_web

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Tiny wishes you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and the gift of an aunt who knits.

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My favorite story about this project: I was at Jo-Anns buying some yarn and bells and the clerk asked me what I was going to make. I said “An elf outfit for a T. rex” and she gaped at me. She said, “That’s the cutest thing I’ve heard all day,” which made my day.

For those interested in the technical details: I used some acrylic and some wool yarns on size 2 needles. I keep thinking I’m going to be able to knit new designs first try, but this outfit took several attempts for nearly every part. Leggings and sleeves required multiple experiments before I got something that looked the way I wanted and also fit. The presents were particularly fiddly: I covered square wooden beads with scrap-booking paper, then tied them with metallic embroidery thread.

Halloween Costume for a T-Rex: Elsa from Frozen

When Tiny told her Aunt Rexie she wanted to be Elsa from Frozen for Halloween, Aunt Rexie was stumped. She doesn’t know how to sew, only how to knit, and she’s still a beginner. But she promised Tiny she’d make her Halloween costume this year, so she looked at pictures of Elsa and got to work.

Elsa from Frozen. Knitting this outfit was no easy task, but Aunt Rexie went for it.

The slim cut dress wouldn’t fit over T-Rex hips, so Rexie put slits up the side. She knew if she just made the skirt wide enough to wear, Tiny would look more like Cinderella than Elsa. She also knit a lacy cover for the cape with sleeves, hoping it would be enough like the translucent layer Elsa wore in the movie to satisfy her niece.

Rather than knit snowflakes into the gown, Rexie used glittery sequins.

You can't be Elsa without the braid. — You can’t be Elsa without the braid.

Rexie also had to make a wig*. What a great excuse to buy more yarn!

While she found knitting the lace part challenging, she still got it done before Halloween. Best of all, Tiny loves it. She’s been wearing it around the house every day this week.

*My husband says it’s demeaning to put a wig on a dinosaur, especially a T-Rex. All I can say in my defense is: Tiny insisted.

Technical details for the curious: I used size 00 needles and a smooth, slightly shiny cotton yarn to knit the dress. The cape is knit from single strands of a sparkly embroidery floss on size 3 (cape) and size 2 (sleeves) needles. I do not recommend using the sparkly floss for knitting. The stuff was stiff and slippery and not knitting friendly. I nearly gave up on it.

Knits For Your Favorite T-Rex

I’ve always been intrigued by dinosaurs. As a kid, my favorites were the Triceratops and Brontosaurus (now known as the Brachiosaurus), both herbivores. Maybe it’s because I’ve become a meat eater again, but I am suddenly drawn to the Tyrannosaurus rex. I have plenty of patterns for knitting dinosaurs, but thinking of the T-rex, I realized that what I’m really interested in is knitting for dinosaurs.

So I bought myself a T-rex and some yarn. Her name is Tiny.

Tiny the T-rex, playing with the yarn I bought for her sweater.

While I’ve done plenty of knitting for critters in the last year or so, I wanted this to be different. As soon as I found Tiny, I was in love. She is so striking looking that I couldn’t settle on just one project. I decided to knit whatever I felt like, but instead of sewing things onto her, I would make every piece removable. That way I could change her clothes and knit as many things as I wanted to for her.

As I knitted, I imagined that Tiny had a loving aunt, one who was fairly new to knitting but enthusiastically making things for everyone in her family. She would start with scarves, graduate to hats, then branch out to mittens once she felt a little more confident.

Tiny shows off her hat, scarf, and mittens.

Mom makes Tiny pose for a photo so they can show Aunt Rexie how much she loves her gifts.

Tyrannosaurs don't have thumbs, but everyone needs mittens. Especially when there's a comet in the forecast. — Tyrannosaurs don’t have thumbs, but everyone needs mittens. Especially when there’s a comet in the forecast.

The knitting bug is not easily fed, however, and it wouldn’t be long before Aunt Rexie would go for the Big Project and make her beloved niece a sweater like the one Velma wears on Scooby-Doo. (Tiny loves that show.) Aunt Rexie was understandably proud of herself for finishing it, even if the results weren’t quite what she expected.

Tiny loves her Velma sweater... mostly. — Tiny loves her Velma sweater… mostly.

"Thanks, Aunt Rexie!" — “Thanks, Aunt Rexie!”

Close up of the sweater (because I couldn't resist). — Close up of the sweater (because I couldn’t resist).

Aunt Rexie will keep knitting for Tiny, but it may be a while before she tackles another big project. She has to get her confidence back (and her niece’s measurements) before she tries again. In the meantime, she’ll knit some dish cloths to keep her hand in.

Technical notes for the curious: all of these pieces are my own invention, created using what I know about knitting for humans. Yarns are fingering weight or sock yarns knitted on size 0 needles. The sweater was particularly interesting to make, because the arm holes are horizontal instead vertical in order to accommodate Tiny’s forward reaching arms. It took a couple of tries to get things right, but the key is most definitely: 1) getting the gauge from a swatch and 2) careful measurement of the T-rex in order to design the pattern.

Dinosaurs From the Knit-aceous Period

My recent dragon fixation has shifted to dinosaurs. I’m not sure how I got the itch to combine dinosaurs and yarn, but I’m apparently not the only one. There are some amazing dinosaur patterns out there, in a full range of styles.

For fast and cute, you can’t beat these adorable crocheted baby brachiosaurs (free pattern) designed by Jana Whitley.

Baby Brachiosaurus designed by Jana Whitley

You can also knit a more complex and stylized stegosaurus (free pattern) designed by Tina Barrett.

In fact, Deramores has a plethora of free dinosaur patterns for both knitters and crocheters, including the two I mentioned above. Definitely check out their other offerings, including with the exciting news that archeologists have discovered the first knitting dinosaur, the Derasaur. (They posted that on April 1. Do you think that means something?)

If you want a more practical dino, how about a hat? Free patterns are available for both crocheted (Danyel Pink) and knitted (Kris Hanson) hats with dinosaur spikes on top.

Dinosaur Spikes crocheted cap designed by Danyel Pink

Of all the dino knits I found, however, my favorite is Christine Grant’s Tracy Triceratops, which has the level of detail I love in an animal knitting project.

Tracy Triceratops, knit pattern by Christine Grant

While I’m sharing fun dino-knits, I can’t pass up sharing Katie Bradley’s charming tortoise “cozies”. She knits these covers (or costumes, depending on how you look at it) for her many pet tortoises. She’s made them pumpkin covers, shark fins, and, of course, dinosaur spikes.

Katie Bradley's adorable Tortoise Cozies, dinosaur style — Katie Bradley’s adorable Tortoise Cozies, dinosaur style

To get the full fun of her creations, watch this short video of her pets modeling their cozies.

I’m not willing to tell you what exactly I am up to with my own dinosaur knitting project. So here’s a teaser picture to give you a hint.

Any dino-knits in your life? Feel free to share them here.

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