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A few years ago I made a crocheted dinosaur softie as part of a softie crochet-a-long and it has been one of my favorite projects ever since. I loved dinosaurs as a little kid, maybe obsessed was a better word. I had books and stuffed animals, so many little plastic dinosaurs, bright yellow curtains hanging in my room that had red, blue, green, and white dinosaurs all over them. I had the most boring dinosaur encyclopedia ever, not like the ones you can get now that have lots of cool pictures and diagrams and lots of color, nope, this was just a big, thick book full of information about dinosaurs with a couple of black and white drawings throughout, and I read that thing over and over. I was fascinated by dinosaurs.

Ever since I made the last dinosaur pattern I have wanted to make another, and I decided it was finally time to do it.

One of the very first crocheted toys I ever made was actually a triceratops. I had crocheted for years but I had always made things like hats, scarves, and blankets. I didn't really know that crocheted stuffed animals were a thing. Then I saw a free stuffed triceratops pattern online and I had to make it. It was a very different style than this one, more like an actual triceratops standing on 4 legs. I thought it was so cool to discover that I could make something like that with just some yarn and a crochet hook, that it quickly became my favorite type of project to crochet.

So anyway long story short, or maybe it is too late for that, I finally designed another dinosaur pattern. This time I went with a triceratops type of dinosaur. I created it using the same basic body pattern as I used for the first dinosaur that I made. I wanted them to match and kind of go together as a set. But instead of spikes like the first one has, this one has a frill on its head as well as three horns.

This was a fun pattern to make and I just love the set of dinosaurs together. It seriously make the little kid inside of me so happy to see the two of them finished. My kids keep asking me if they can have the dinosaurs but I think I am keeping these ones for myself. They will go up on my craft room shelf with some of my other favorite projects. Hopefully you will enjoy the patterns as much as I enjoyed making them.

How to Crochet a Triceratops

Finished size: about 10" tall

You will need:

worsted weight yarn in 3 colors (I used Loops and Threads Impeccable in Blue Haze, Fern, and white)
G crochet hook
2- 12 mm safety eyes
Poly-Fil
stitch markers
yarn needle

Instructions:

All pieces, except the frill, are made starting with a magic ring and worked in the round. You do not join rounds, just continue working in a spiral. Stitch markers are very helpful to keep track of your stitch count. The head and body are made in one piece worked from the top down. The arms, legs, muzzle, tail, frill, and horns are made separately and sewn on at the end.

Head and Body

Use main color (Blue Haze)

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12 sc)
Round 3:[2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] 6 times (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 2] 6 times (24 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 3] 6 times (30 sc)
Round 6: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 4] 6 times (36 sc)
Round 7: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 5] 6 times (42 sc)
Round 8: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 6] 6 times (48 sc)
Rounds 9-19: 1 sc in each stitch (48 sc)

Place eyes between rounds 12 and 13, about 6 stitches apart

Begin stuffing the head and continue to stuff as you go

Round 20: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 6 stitches] 6 times (42 sc)
Round 21: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 5 stitches] 6 times (36 sc)
Round 22: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 stitches] 6 times (30 sc)
Round 23: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 stitches] 6 times (24 sc)

Round 24: sc2tog all the way around (12 sc)Round 25: 2 sc in each stitch (24 sc)
Round 26: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 3] 6 times (30 sc)
Round 27: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 4] 6 times (36 sc)
Rounds 28-42: 1 sc in each stitch (36 sc)
Round 43: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 stitches] 6 times (30 sc)
Round 44: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 3 stitches] 6 times (24 sc)
Round 45: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 stitches] 6 times (18 sc)
Round 46: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next stitch] 6 times (12 sc)
Round 47: sc2tog around (6 sc)

Finish off, weave in ends

Muzzle

Use main color (Blue Haze)

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12 sc)
Round 3:[2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] 6 times (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 2] 6 times (24 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 3] 6 times (30 sc)
Round 6: 1 sc in each stitch (30 sc)
Round 7: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 4] 6 times (36 sc)
Round 8: 1 sc in each stitch (36 sc)

Finish off and cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing

Frill

Use contrasting color (Fern)

ch 32

Row 1: 2 sc in second ch from hook, [1 sc in next 4 stitches, 2 sc in next] repeat to end (38 sc)

Row 2: ch 1, turn, [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 5] 6 times, 1 sc in each of last 2 stitches (44 sc)

Row 3:ch 1, turn, [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 6] 6 times, 1 sc in each of last 2 stitches (50 sc)

Row 4: ch 1, turn, [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 7] 6 times, 1 sc in each of last 2 stitches (56 sc)

Row 5: ch 4, turn, sl st in 3rd ch from hook to make first picot, sc in first st, [sc in next 8 stitches, sc in next stitch, make picot by ch 3, sl st in first ch, then sc in same st as previous sc] 5 times, sc in next 9 stitches, ch 3, sl st in first ch to make picot, sc in last stitch (62 sc, 7 picots)

Finish off, cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Horns (make 3)

Use white yarn

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 4 sc (4 sc)
Round 2: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] twice (6 sc)
Round 3: 1 sc in each stitch (6 sc)

Finish off, cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing

Arms (make 2)

Start with contrasting color (Fern)

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12 sc)
Round 3:[2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] 6 times (18 sc)
Rounds 4-5: 1 sc in each stitch (18 sc)

Switch to main color (Blue Haze)

Round 6: 1 sc in each stitch (18 sc)
Round 7: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next stitch] 6 times (12 sc)
Rounds 8-12: 1 sc in each stitch (12 sc)

Finish off, leave long tail for sewing

Legs (make 2)

Start with contrasting color (Fern)

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12 sc)
Round 3:[2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] 6 times (18 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 2] 6 times (24 sc)
Rounds 5--7: 1 sc in each stitch (24 sc)

Switch to main color (Blue Haze)

Round 8: 1 sc in each stitch (24 sc)
Round 9: [sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 stitches] 6 times (18 sc)
Rounds 10-15: 1 sc in each stitch (18 sc)

Finish off, leaving long tail for sewing

Tail

Make with main color (Blue Haze)

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 4 sc (4 sc)
Round 2: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next] twice (6 sc)
Round 3: 1 sc in each stitch (6 sc)
Round 4: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 2] twice (8 sc)
Round 5: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 3] twice (10 sc)
Round 6: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 4] twice (12 sc)
Round 7: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 5] twice (14 sc)
Round 8: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 6] twice (16 sc)
Round 9: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 7] twice (18 sc)
Round 10: [2 sc in first stitch, 1 sc in next 8] twice (20 sc)
Round 11: 1 sc in each stitch (20 sc)

Finish off, leaving long tail for sewing

Assembly

Stuff the ends of the arms and legs lightly, I leave the top part unstuffed. Stuff the tail lightly.
Stitch the muzzle on the front of the dinosaur just under the eyes, stuffing as you go. You want it to be well stuffed as it will be on the face.

Stitch the frill to the the head.

Stitch the horns in place, one on the center top of the muzzle, and one above and slightly to the outside of each eye.

Stitch the arms to the side of the body near the top.

Stitch the legs to the side of the body in a sitting position.

Stitch the tail to the bottom back of the dinosaur.

Crocheted Triceratops