Crochet Dragon Eggs With Baby Dragon

This all started when I made a crochet chicken for a co-worker of mine who was feeling sad that she had to give away her brood of chickens (since the city bylaws don't allow them in residential areas).   When another colleague saw the chicken I made, she wanted one too.  "You want a chicken?" I asked, she said "how about a rabbit instead", since she was born in the year of the rabbit.  So I made her a rabbit, and then a second one for another co-worker also born in the year of the rabbit.  Overhearing that I was making animals from the Chinese Zodiac someone else mentioned being born in the year of the dragon. 

Now I do really like dragons, but I don't have the time to make another one of these. I wanted to make something a little smaller so decided on a baby dragon hatching from an egg.  The person who asked for the dragon, tends to wear a lot of sparkly, glittery things so I wanted to incorporate sequins into this project.  I used the sequins as scales on the egg.  In addition to the half-egg with the dragon hatching out of it, I also made two whole eggs (though slightly smaller) with metallic sequins. 

I had planned to give her the dragon next week, but had since learned that she had been mistaken and was actually born in the year of the tiger.

Yarn weight 3:

• White
• Green

Other:

• 2.25mm crochet hook
• Yarn needles
• Polyfil/fibrefil stuffing of some sort
• Green felt
• Sequins
• Plastic crochet eyes
• Sewing thread and needle

Rnd round
ch(s) chain stitch(s)
sc single crochet
sl st slip stitch
st(s) stitch(s)
sc2tog decrease by crocheting 2 stitches together

The sequins need to be strung onto the yarn before you begin to crochet.  I will warn you right now that this will be tedious work.  You will need one sequin for every stitch starting from Rnd 2 in my half egg, so that would be 198 sequins that will need to be strung onto the yarn. 

I used a sewing needle with a large eye (large enough to thread 3 weight yarn), the needle also needed to be narrow enough to pass through the hole in the sequin.  Thread the sequins from the concave side (see image above).  Once all of the sequins have been threaded, I move them down into a bunch to give room to start crocheting, then moved each sequin forward individually as needed.

For the full size egg, I ended up using embroidery thread instead of the yarn so that it would be easier to string the sequins.  The lighter weight of the thread produced a smaller egg and I only added a sequin to every other stitch, so these eggs ended up being quicker to make.

To incorporate the sequins into your work, for sc (single crochet) stitches:

1. insert your hook through the work, move the sequin up so that it is flush against the work
2. yarn over and draw hook through work (sequin should stay on the outside). 
3. yarn over again (this time not moving a sequin forward), and draw through the two loops.
4. arrange the sequins along the outside so that they lie flat and overlap one another as you add more.

 I began adding the sequins in Rnd 2, with one sequin added in every stitch

Half egg

With the white yarn with sequins

Rnd 1: Magic Circle 6 .

Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around - 12 sts

Rnd 3: *2 sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around - 18 sts

Rnd 4: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 24 sts.

Rnds 5 -11: Sc in each sc around - 24 sts

Fasten off.

For a Full size egg

Continue from Rnd 11

Rnd 12: Sc in each sc around - 24 sts

Rnd 13: *sc2tog, sc, sc, sc, sc repeat - 20sts.

Rnd 14: *sc2tog, sc, sc, sc,  repeat - 16sts.

Rnd 15: *sc2togsc, sc, sc, repeat -12sts.

Rnd 16: *sc2togsc, sc, repeat -8sts. Stuff

Rnd 17: *sc2tog in rest.

Fasten off.

Using green yarn:

Head

Rnd 1: Magic Circle 6.

Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around - 12 sts.

Rnd 3: *2sc in next st, sc in each of next 2 sts, rep from * around - 16 sts.

Rnds 4 -6: Sc in each sc around - 16 sts

Rnd 7: *sc2tog, sc, sc, repeat -12st(s), Stuff.

Rnd 8: sc2tog in rest. Fasten off. Leave tail.

Snout

Rnd 1: Magic Circle 4.

Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around - 8 sts

Rnds 3 -4: Sc in each sc around - 8 sts

Fasten off. Leave tail. Add stuffing.

Horns (make 2)

Magic Circle 6, sc2tog first 2 sts in each Rnd. Fasten off.

Still using green yarn:

Body

Rnd 1: Magic Circle 6.

Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around - 12 sts

Rnd 3: *2 sc in next st, sc in each of next st, rep from * around - 18 sts

Rnds 4 -5: Sc in each sc around - 18 sts

Fasten off.

Still using green yarn:

Wings (make 2)

Chain 10, sl st back 5, chain 4, sl st back 3, sl st back to first stitch. Fasten off, leave tail.

Cut out two pieces of green felt the same shape as the wings. Sew the felt to the back of each wing with sewing thread.

Sew the horns and snout to the head and then onto the body, then add the wings.  Fill the body with stuffing and place inside the half egg.  It should be a snug fit.  I used sequins and black plastic crochet eyes for the dragon eyes (If you have he concave side of the sequin facing out, it looks like the eyes follow you).