{"id":19691,"date":"2019-05-15T10:27:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T14:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/?p=19691"},"modified":"2019-09-18T09:10:48","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:10:48","slug":"giant-amigurumi-dinosaur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/giant-amigurumi-dinosaur\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Amigurumi Dinosaur!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Way back in February, I announced on Twitter that I was going to make a Giant Dinosaur:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Giant Dino is happening! It should be around 3ft long ? <br \/>Ingredients:<br \/>1. A dino pattern from my Dinosaurs Set 1 (I&#39;ll leave which as a surprise!)<br \/>2. Techniques from my Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi<\/p>\n<p>Result and pics to follow&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Jaxk8lnp2M\">pic.twitter.com\/Jaxk8lnp2M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; June Gilbank (@PlanetJune) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PlanetJune\/status\/1093653610846547970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And now it&#8217;s time for the big reveal! <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giant_amigurumi_triceratops.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Amigurumi Triceratops Dinosaur by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Georgette the Giant Purple Triceratops is 36 inches (over 90cm!) long, weighs 1.9lbs (850g) and is impossibly soft and cuddly. <\/p>\n<p>I made her using my <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=18&#038;products_id=68\">Triceratops<\/a> pattern from <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=18&#038;products_id=76\">Dinosaurs Set 1<\/a> and the techniques from my <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=37&#038;products_id=345\">Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giant_amigurumi_triceratops2.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Amigurumi Triceratops Dinosaur by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t she huge?!<\/p>\n<p>Although she turned out beautifully, I did have a few hitches along the way&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>Yarn<\/h2>\n<p>I was excited to find a new (to me) yarn to try for this project: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yarnspirations.com\/ca-en\/bernat-blanket-extra-yarn--mushroom\/16102727001.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Bernat Blanket Extra<\/a>. According to my calculations, one strand of Extra would be the equivalent of the two strands of Bernat Blanket I use for most of my giant ami, so it seemed like the perfect yarn for Giant Amigurumi! In the picture below, it&#8217;s the purple yarn second from the top:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giantami_yarns.jpg\" alt=\"yarn for giant amigurumi (pictured: worsted weight, super bulky, and two sizes of jumbo yarns)\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Pictured top to bottom:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bernat Blanket Big (#7 jumbo &#8211; good for Extreme Amigurumi)<\/li>\n<li>Bernat Blanket Extra (#7 jumbo &#8211; good for Giant Amigurumi)<\/li>\n<li>Bernat Blanket (#6 super bulky &#8211; use 2 strands for Giant Amigurumi or 1 for Mini Giant Amigurumi)<\/li>\n<li>Lion Brand Vanna&#8217;s Choice (#4 worsted weight &#8211; a standard amigurumi yarn, for comparison)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>While I <strong>was<\/strong> correct that a single strand of Extra is an ideal yarn for Giant Amigurumi, I made a bit of a miscalculation and used the weight instead of the yardage when I was figuring out how much yarn I&#8217;d need (using the calculation method from the book). Converting from 2 strands of Blanket to 1 strand of Extra, the yardage is a straight 2:1 conversion, but the weight isn&#8217;t quite the same (as the Extra weighs just a little more per yard than 2 strands of Blanket). <\/p>\n<p>Thanks to that mistake, I didn&#8217;t buy quite enough yarn for the Giant Stegosaurus I had planned \ud83d\ude41 , but I ran the numbers and realised I had enough to make a Giant Triceratops instead &#8211; problem solved!<\/p>\n<h2>Structure<\/h2>\n<p>Giant ami aren&#8217;t as rigid as standard amigurumi, and, even though they are light for their size, the weight of Georgette&#8217;s head, including the horns and frill, was a bit much for her front legs &#8211; they were squashed down a little, which made her chin touch the ground. So I added an extra round to her front legs to offset that &#8216;squish factor&#8217;, which worked out fine \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giant_amigurumi_triceratops3.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Amigurumi Triceratops Dinosaur by PlanetJune\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Other than that, I followed the pattern, together with my book&#8217;s technique advice, exactly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>secure magic ring<\/strong> was a lifesaver, especially for those giant horns!<\/li>\n<li>It turns out that a giant triceratops frill is <strong>very<\/strong> floppy, but the <strong>stiffening flat pieces<\/strong> technique sorted that right out.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>large<\/strong> size crocheted eyes were the perfect finishing touch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giant_amigurumi_triceratops4.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Amigurumi Triceratops Dinosaur by PlanetJune together with a standard-sized triceratops\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Awww, don&#8217;t they look just like a mama triceratops and newly-hatched baby?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Georgette is exactly 4 times the length of the standard Triceratops, and 15 times the weight! But she&#8217;s extremely cute and cuddly &#8211; yay for non-scary dinosaurs \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<h2>Make Your Own!<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re inspired to try crocheting a giant dinosaur too, here&#8217;s what you&#8217;ll need:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The PlanetJune <a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=18&#038;products_id=68\">Triceratops crochet pattern<\/a>, or another <a href=\"\/dinosaurs\">dinosaur pattern<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=37&#038;products_id=345\">The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook<\/a> for all the special sizing-up techniques<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/shop\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=37&#038;products_id=345\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/giantami_versions.jpg\" alt=\"The Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi ebook by June Gilbank - available in right-handed and left-handed versions\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course Giant Amigurumi isn&#8217;t limited to just dinosaurs (although I&#8217;m still tempted to buy more yarn to make a giant stegosaurus!) &#8211; see the book for lots of other examples, and advice for which amigurumi patterns will be easiest to scale up to giant size.<\/p>\n<p>Please share photos of your giant amigurumi projects on any social media using the <strong>#giantamigurumi<\/strong> hashtag, and tag me <strong>@planetjune<\/strong> so I can see what you&#8217;re making! And if you&#8217;re a member of the <a href=\"\/ravelry\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">PlanetJune Ravelry group<\/a>, you can also share your giant amis in our ongoing Giant Amigurumi CAL \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m still smitten with Giant Amigurumi &#8211; they&#8217;re just so much fun, don&#8217;t you think? Who could resist a giant purple triceratops?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Way back in February, I announced on Twitter that I was going to make a Giant Dinosaur: Giant Dino is happening! It should be around 3ft long ? Ingredients:1. A dino pattern from my Dinosaurs Set 1 (I&#39;ll leave which as a surprise!)2. Techniques from my Complete Guide to Giant Amigurumi Result and pics to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crochet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planetjune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}