“I am Fire! I am Death! I am Smaug!”
Smaug, in the first 2 Hobbit movies, is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Honestly, Smaug was my favorite part of the movies. Making him was a lot of fun. As my second dragon made from the same pattern I knew what the pattern called for and was able to adjust it to fit the pictures of Smaug.
So though I don’t have any pictures of the process, but here is the pattern for the dragon. The pattern doesn’t contain the wings (can be found here). Searching through my yarn stash I found a nice burnt auburn red. Following the pattern I knitted the head and body how it says to. However, I did start using bright yellow when coming to the neck.
Here he is before I put in his eyes or attached his limbs.
As you can see, I differed from the pattern. For the tail I slowly decreased while making it longer. This resulted in a long thin tail. To stiffen it, I used a pipe cleaner. To insert the pipe cleaner:
- Bend one end of the pipe cleaner
- Insert crochet hook through tail
- Grab onto hooked end of pipe cleaner
- Pull it through the tail
Another way I differed from the pattern was the nose. I slowly decreased to a point.
Here he is with his eyes put in. I used 21mm cat eyes, they bring the reptile to his face. Then, I folded his forehead so he would have an angry expression.
Sewing him up took a bit of ingenuity. Originally, I had planned, like the pattern, for him to hold gold and jewels in his belly. But coming down to the wire, or getting close, I decided making a cave (that post to come) for him instead. Planning to not have a slit down his belly would have made making him quite a bit easier, but that not a big deal.
For claws I looped black yarn around 4 times with a yarn needle.
I don’t have any pictures of him while I attach his wings. They are a little small for a dragon, not useful to fly, but they were what the pattern was for. Maybe the next time I make Smaug I’ll give him powerful wings.
And here he is in his cave. All ready to swim in his sea of gold.
