I really really really love Shawl collar sweaters.
And at this point you might be thinking yes, but what about the dinosaur shawl? We will get to that, for sure, but the beginning of this design really has it's roots in the shawl collar sweater. We all know that keeping the head and neck warm make the whole body warm, and above and beyond the need for warmth having something soft wrapped around the neck is soothing and comforting. So this design actually started as the desire for a shawl collar sweater... without the sweater.. so more shawl, but with that same folded over collar look.
So the shawl needed to be a crescent, but reverse from what your typical crescent shape would be as it needed the curved edge at the top.
In addition I wanted to make sure that the front of the chest was going to be covered with at least one later, and preferably two layers. I find that I can't bear to have my winter coat zipped all the way up to my neck and then fasten those snaps at the collar, it squishes whatever scarf or shawl I am wearing into my neck and makes me feel like I am suffocating. But when the coat is partially unzipped there is that triangle section of lower neck that always seems cold, scarves never cover it properly, it needs a purpose made triangle section.
So combining the reverse cresecent (humped back) and 2 bottom triangle pieces (legs) suddenly it all clearly became a dinosaur. (this part I can't really explain, sometimes the inside part of my brain where no one else gets to moderate the creativity goes a little wild.) But a dinosaur it was, so of course it needed spikes, and a head (which is optional in the pattern by the way) and a long tail too.
I had two skeins of Assockilate from Cyborg's Craft Room, it seemed like the perfect match for a suddenly prehistoric dinosaur shawl. The wildly variegated yarn was just zaney enough to work perfectly for my Dino, and since nobody really knows what colors dinosaur actually were pink and green seemed perfect!
The main body of the Shawl has strong chevrons in the darker color and checkerboard eyelets and welting using both colors. The Upper Back is worked mostly with garter stitch and short rows with a few eyelet rows thrown in for good measure. The whole dino is topped off with a plethora of spikes that are worked as a knit on border and fold over with the shawl collar for a wild look.
My brother helped me model this one as he is, and always has been a total dinosaur connoisseur. And I love how modular and interesting the dino looks when wrapped around the neck. I hope you have fun knitting and wearing this design, it's totally unique and a great conversation piece!
