Triceratops Free Crochet Pattern

Hi, friends!

Meet Trish! Trish is a triceratops. She is the latest in my Dino series and is the first friend to Brian the Brachiosaurus (you can find his pattern here!)

There is very little colour work involved in Trish’s pattern (just a little bit when crocheting around the head) but there is a bit more stitching and assembly in this pattern, compared to Brian’s. 

As usual, this pattern is made in the same style as my Ragdoll patterns; separate pieces worked in flat rows and then joined together to give them that unique 2-D look. There are 12 pieces needed to make Trish, which isn’t bad since that includes the three horns and the three spots. 

The finished measurements are approximately 20cm/8″ high and 24cm/9.5″ wide.

Let’s get started! (Or Pin/Shop for later!)

If you’d prefer a downloadable or printable version of this pattern, an inexpensive, formatted, and ad-free PDF can be purchased HERE or through the “Shop It” button above!

Materials:

• 3.25mm hook (I use THESE hooks!);
• Bernat Premium in Spring Green for body (about 50g);
• Caron Simply Soft in Chartreuse for face (less than 50g);
• Caron Cotton Cakes in Cream for horns (small amounts);
• Bernat Handicrafter in Hot Orange for spots (small amounts);
• Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread in black for mouth;
• 12mm safety eyes;
• Stuffing;
• Tapestry needle;
• Stitch markers.

Terms and Stitches:

Ch – Chain

Slst – Slip stitch

MR – Magic Ring

Sc – Single crochet 

Inc – Increase. Work a regular sc increase.

Dec – Decrease. Work a regular sc decrease.

Dc – Double crochet

Bobble – (Yarn over, insert your hook, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2 loops), repeat ( ) 4 more times until you have 6 loops on your hook, pull through all 6 loops.

Leg 1:

In dark green, using 3.25mm hook. Chain 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 6, sc 5 (5 sts)

Row 2: Sc across (5 sts)

Row 3: Sc 4, inc (6 sts)

Row 4: Inc, sc 5 (7)

Row 5: Sc 6, inc (8 sts)

Place a stitch marker in the last st of row 5. Tie off and set aside for later.

Legs 2 & 3:

With dark green yarn and 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 6, sc 5 (5 sts)

Rows 2-5: Sc across (5 sts)

Tie off. Set aside for later.

Leg 4:

With dark green yarn and 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 6, sc 5 (5 sts)

Rows 2-4: Sc across (5 sts)

Row 5: Inc, sc 4 (6 sts)

Place a stitch marker in the last st of row 5. Tie off. Set aside for later.

Body:

Position legs 1 through 4 next to each other from left to right, with the stitch markers on legs 1 and 4 on the left, as shown in the photo below. In the first row of the body, we will be crocheting across all four pieces to join them.

Join your yarn in the right-most stitch of leg 4.

Row 1: Inc, sc 4, inc across Leg 4, join Leg 3, inc in first st, sc 3, inc in last st, join Leg 2, inc in first two stitches, sc 2, inc in last st, join Leg 4, inc in first st, sc 6, inc in last st (33 sts)

Row 2: Inc, sc 31, inc (35 sts)

Row 3: Inc, sc 33, inc (37 sts)

Row 4: Sc 35, inc twice (39 sts)

Row 5: Inc twice, sc 37 (41 sts)

Row 6: Sc 40, inc (42 sts)

Row 7: Inc, sc 37, dec twice (41 sts)

Row 8: Dec twice, sc 36, inc (40 sts)

Row 9: Sc 36, dec twice (38 sts)

Place a stitch marker in the first stitch of row 9. 

Now we will finish the back (we’ll go back to finish the tail later). You will only be crocheting part way across the next row before chaining and turning.

Row 10: Dec, sc 28 (29 sts)

Row 11: Sc 27, dec (28 sts)

Row 12: Dec, sc 24, dec (26 sts)

Row 13: Dec, sc 22, dec (24 sts)

Row 14: Dec, sc 20, dec (22 sts)

Row 15: Dec twice, sc 14, dec twice (18 sts)

Row 16: Dec twice, sc 10, dec twice (14 sts)

Row 17: Dec twice, sc 6, dec twice (10 sts)

Tie off.

Position your piece so that the tail is on the right. Join your yarn in the right-most stitch (the one with the stitch marker).

Tail:

Row 1: Sc 4 (4 sts)

Row 2: Dec twice (2 sts)

Row 3: Dec (1 st)

Tie off.

Repeat all of the above for the back panel, but make sure any yarn ends on the back panel are facing the opposite side than they were for the first panel. This ensures all the yarn tails are facing the inside when we match up the panels later (so, the “right side” of the front panel becomes the “wrong side” for the back panel and vice versa).

Spots:

I made three spots; one large and two small. 

Large Spot:

Worked in continuous rounds. With 3.25mm hook and orange yarn, you will be working around a base chain to make an oval.

Rnd 1: Ch 4, sc 2, 5 sc in last ch, working on opposite side of chain, sc 1, 2 sc in last ch (10 sts)

Slst to first st and tie off.

Small spots:

Rnd 1: 6 sc into a magic ring.

Slst to first st and tie off.

Face:

With light green yarn and 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 13, sc across (12 sts)

Row 2: Inc twice, sc 8, inc twice (16 sts)

Row 3: Inc, s 14, inc (18 sts)

Row 4: Inc, sc 16, inc (20 sts)

Row 5: Inc twice, sc 16, inc twice (24 sts)

Row 6: Inc, sc 22, inc (26 sts)

Rows 7-9: Sc across (26 sts)

Row 10: Dec, sc 22, dec (24 sts)

Row 11: Sc across (24 sts)

Row 12: Dec, sc 20, dec (22 sts)

Row 13: Sc across (22 sts)

Place a stitch marker in the first st and the last st of row 13.

Rows 14-19: Sc across (22 sts)

Row 20: Dec, sc 18, dec (20 sts)

Row 21: Dec, sc 16, dec (18 sts)

Tie off. 

Repeat Rows 1 to 13 only for the back face panel. You can stop after row 13 because the face panel will be stitched onto the inside of the frill later and the only visible rows will be 1-13.

Frill:

In dark green yarn and 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 27, sc across (26 sts)

Row 2: Inc, sc 24, inc (28 sts)

Row 3: Sc across (28 sts)

Row 4: Inc, sc 26, inc (30 sts)

Row 5: Sc across (30 sts)

Row 6: Dec, sc 26, dec (28 sts)

Row 7: Dec, sc 24, dec (26 sts)

Rows 8-9: Sc across (26 sts)

Place a stitch marker in the first and last stitch of row 9.

Row 10: Sc across (26 sts)

Row 11: Inc, sc 24, inc (28 sts)

Row 12: Inc, sc 26, inc (30 sts)

Rows 13-14: Sc across (30 sts)

Row 15: Dec, sc 26, dec (28 sts)

Row 16: Dec, sc 24, dec (26 sts)

Row 17: Dec, sc 22, dec (24 sts)

Tie off. Turn the piece. Join yarn in the 4th stitch and continue with row 18 below.

Row 18: Sc 18 (18 sts)

Row 19: Dec twice, sc 10, dec twice (14 sts)

Row 20: Dec twice, sc 6, dec twice (10 sts)

Row 21: Dec, sc 6, dec (8 sts)

Row 22: Dec, sc 4, dec (6 sts)

Tie off.

Repeat all of the above for the back frill panel, but, again, make sure any yarn ends on the back panel are facing the opposite side than they were for the first panel. This ensures all the yarn tails are facing the inside when we match up the panels later (so, the “right side” of the front panel becomes the “wrong side” for the back panel and vice versa).

Nose/Horn:

In cream yarn with 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 4, sc across (3 sts)

Row 2: Inc, sc 1, inc (5 sts)

Rows 3-4: Sc across (5 sts)

Row 5: Dec, sc 1, dec (3)

Row 6: Sc3tog (1 st)

Do not tie off yet. Ch 1, then sc around the piece. [Sc, dc, sc] in the top stitch. Slst to first st and tie off.

Horns:

With cream yarn and 3.25mm hook. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Row 1: Ch 5, sc across (4 sts)

Row 2: Dec, 2 (3 sts)

Row 3: Sc 1, dec (2 sts)

Row 4: Dec (1)

Do not tie off yet. Ch 1, then sc around the piece. [Sc, dc, sc] in the top stitch. Slst to first st and tie off.

Repeat all of the above for the second horn. 

Move on to assembly below!

Assembly:

Step 1: Spots and Body

The first thing we need to do is stitch on the spots to the front body panel and then join the body panels together.

Line up the panels together, so all the rows are matching. Starting on the top on the left side, begin attaching the panels together. Insert your hook into both panels, chain one, then single crochet around the outside of both panels all the way around. 

When crocheting around, try to crochet with a looser tension than usual. If this is tricky for you, try sizing up to a 3.5mm or 3.75mm hook. Crocheting loosely, especially around the curved areas, helps keep all the edges curved. 

Crochet down and up around each leg. [Sc, ch 1, sc] in the corner of each leg to make them square.

Continue crocheting around. 

[Sc, dc, sc] into the tip of the tail.

Stop once you reach the top of the tail. Stuff the legs.

From here on out, stop after every few stitches to top up the stuffing. Continue doing this all the way up the back, and across the top.   

Once it is firmly stuffed, close with a slst to first st. Tie off. With your tapestry needle, poke the yarn tail back inside the piece.

Step 2: Face, Head, and Frill

Next, we need to stitch the face onto the frill. 

Take the front face panel and lay it on top of the front frill panel. Line up the two so that the top of the face panel lines up with the stitch markers on the frill and the stitch markers on the face panel line up with the bottom of the frill. Stitch down.

Do the same for the back face panel and the back frill panel. The only difference is that, because the back face panel won’t be seen, we only crocheted to row 13. So, stitch row 13 of the face panel onto the bottom row of the back frill panel using dark green yarn. 

Next, we will attach our facial features to the front face panel. Stitch on the nose in the middle of the panel. Insert 12mm eyes. (Add cheeks if you want by stitching pink yarn around one stitch below each eye). Stitch on the horns (they will overlap onto the corners of the face and the frill).

Finally, stitch on a little mouth using black crochet thread.

Okay, the first picture below shows all the pieces you should now have at this step. You’re in the home stretch!

The head panel will be stitched to the body along the dotted line as shown in the second picture above.

Place the two head panels together matching up all sides. Make sure the front is facing you as you crochet around.

Starting on the top on the left side (see third photo above), begin attaching the panels together. Insert your hook into both panels, chain 1, and then single crochet around the outside of the panels in dark green.

When crocheting around, try to crochet with a looser tension than usual. If this is tricky for you, try sizing up to a 3.5mm or 3.75mm hook. Crocheting loosely, especially around the curved areas, helps keep all the edges curved. 

The horns around the frill (i.e. the white points on each bump around the frill) will be crocheted as we go, so stop when you get to the first bump of the frill. To crochet the horn, change to cream yarn (work the previous stitch only halfway and finish with cream yarn), then complete a bobble stitch in the next st. Once the bobble st is completed, ch 1 in cream, then change back to dark green yarn by working a slst. 

Continue crocheting around (you may need to use the back of your hook to push the bobble stitch to the front.

Repeat the above when you get to the second bump of the frill. 

Switch to light green yarn for the face. Stop when you get to the bottom of the face.

Stitch the head to the body (as shown by the dotted line in the photos above) using light green yarn. Be sure you stitch through all three pieces, the front panel, the body and the back panel. When finished, tie a knot to secure and hide the yarn tails inside the piece.

Continue crocheting around. Simply crochet in the stitches of the front panel only when crocheting around the part that’s already stitched on. Once you’re past the stitched on area, continue crocheting both panels together as usual.

Switch back to dark green yarn when appropriate. 

Remember to crochet the bobble horn at the tip of the next two bumps on the frill. 

Stop here at the top of the head and stuff. Continue to crochet around, topping up stuffing after every couple of stitches.

Work the last bobble horn at the top of the last bump (at the top of the frill). Once the head is stuffed firmly, continue to crochet around, close with a slst to first st. Tie off. With your tapestry needle, poke the yarn tail back inside the piece.

You’re done!

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