FO: Juan Pablo the Allosaurus

When a friend of mine has a baby, I immediately start thinking about what animals I can make them. This particular baby actually came back in November, but life happens and I had so many other projects going that I didn't get to make him anything at the time. Good thing babies don't remember things like that, right? His mom is totally laid back, so I knew she would be happy to receive a present no matter when it came, so I still kept this project on my list until I finished my other obligations and had a little time - it just so happened this time coincided with my week of flu. So again at least I was able to still be productive :)

I decided to make an Allosaurus after seeing the adorable pattern called My Jurassic World by Madelenón on Ravelry. Pablo The Allosaurus is what drew my attention first, so I decided to make him up, but just look at that Stegosaurus! Who am I kidding? They are all super cute, and I'm sure I will turn to those other patterns some day. They all came together, which makes for a nice little set. The pattern comes in English or Spanish, which is another nice touch I think. I was so inspired by the pattern sample that I decided to just copy the colors and everything, lol. I even sort of copied the name! At first I called him Pablo, but then Juan Pablo sounded like a fun variation. My nephew really liked his name and has now requested another for himself that is also to be called Juan Pablo.

I went with I Love This Yarn (from Hobby Lobby) in the Light Peach colorway for the body and the Desert Glaze colorway for the spikes and stripes. This is a great yarn for baby projects because 1) it's nice and soft, 2) it's quite lofty which helps fill in the holes from the stitches (making it great for amigurumi), and 3) it's acrylic, so it's completely washable. I'm realistic with my toys and I hope they are going to be well loved, which means they will probably be chewed on, spit up on, drug around, etc and will eventually need cleaning. I like to make it easy on my mom friends with washable yarn.

Since this was for a really little dude, I decided to go with baby safe eyes in felt. I used my Sizzix Paddle Punch in the smallest circle for the black and then freehand cut two white ovals to go around just to give him some more depth. I hand stitched these on with coordinating thread so you don't see the stitches.

Also since this was for a little dude, I decided to give it some auditory interest. I put a rattler in his belly area and a squeaker in the curve of his tail. I'm thinking this will help such a young baby want to interact with it more. We'll see if that helps :) I'm also imagining this will get chewed on quite a bit since it has so many points and pieces sticking off to stick in a little mouth. I also secured the embroidered strips on the tummy with periodic stitches in the same spot (if that makes sense) - you can see my little stitches in the photo above. The pattern just says to embroider lines - not super helpful. So I followed the picture to put in the lines and then secured them down in a few spots each line to keep the baby from being able to pull up the whole strand of yarn.

The pattern was great and easy to follow. It's in a different format then I'm used to, but if you've ever made a toy before you will understand it very quickly.

And here is Juan Pablo with his new owner - Owen :) Isn't he the cutest chunk ever?

This face says, "Mother, what have you done to me?!", lol but in reality his mom said he was very intent on putting the dino in his mouth when this shot was taken, so I guess it was well received.

So this was a nice little project to get me back into crocheting animals :) It's so quick and rewarding! This started a major animal making kick, so be forewarned - you will soon see lots of cute animals on the blog. There are worse things, I suppose :) I hope you like your dino, Owen!