Monster of the Month - January

My first Monster of the Month was a blue monster with white dreads. He's low-sew... you only have to sew on the eye. If your monster was a lighter color and you had a big safety eye you wanted to use, that would work, too... but I thought a safety eye would just get lost in this guy's blue fur. 

Yarn: I used one 50 g ball of Bernat Allure, a super bulky yarn, held together with a strand of sport weight yarn (to help me see my stitches better). I used a K hook for the body, arms and legs of the monster. 

I used small amounts of white and black worsted weight for the eye, and more white for the dreads. I used an F hook for the eye, and K hook for the dreads. 

First, I made the arms. I started in the round, but then moved on to rows. 

Arms - make 2

R1: 5 sc in MR

R2: *sc, ch 4, sl st 3* x 3, sc 2 (5 sc + 3 fingers)

Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc 2

Rows 4-7: ch 1, turn, sc 2. Finish off. Set aside until called for while making the body. 

Legs: make 2

R1: 6 sc in MR (6)

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: BLO sc  (12)

R4: sc  (12)

R5: *sc, dec* x 4 (8)

R6-8: sc 8 (8). Finish off leg one. When you finish leg 2, do not finish off... continue with body. 

Body:

R1: ch 4, sc 8 around first leg, sc in each of the 4 chains, sc 8 around second leg, sc in back loops of the 4 chains (24)

R2-3: sc (24)

R4: decrease at sides (22) Stuff the legs, and continue to stuff body as you go. 

R5: sc (22)

Time to attach the arms in round 6! Fold your monster flat (like he's on his back) and find the two stitches at the center of each side. You will crochet through these stitches and your arms at the same time. 

 R6: sc, crocheting through the arm and marked stitches at each side. (22)

R7: decrease at sides (20)

R8: decrease at sides (18)

R9: decrease at sides (16)

R10: *sc 2, dec* x 4 (12) Get that last little bit of stuffing in... 

R11: dec x 6 (6) Finish off, leaving a tail. Weave tail through the front loops of Round 11 and pull to close. Weave in remaining tail. 

Eye (with worsted weight yarn and F hook)

With white: 

R1: sc 6 in MR

R2: inc x 6 (12)

R3: *sc, inc* x 6 (18) Finish off, leaving a tail to sew to monster's face. 

With black:

R1: sc 5 in MR. Finish off, leaving tail to sew to white of the eye. Sew the black circle off-center on the white. Sew eye in the center of the monster's face. 

Dreads: 

Cut 10-12 lengths of yarn about 48" long. I just take the end of the yarn in one hand, hold the yarn in the other, and stretch my arms as far out as they will go, then cut the yarn.

Fold your yarn in half, and using the K hook, pull the center of the yarn through a stitch on top of the head. Now make a chain with both strands of the yarn held together, until you run out of yarn. I was getting 19-20 chains per strand. Just pull your yarn through the last chain, trim the ends, and move on to the next dread. 

I guess this one would be Mama Dreads... I made her with one strand of Bernat Boa (Peacock) and one strand of light blue worsted weight yarn.