Scalemate Pattern

Hi friends - I got a request to share my scalemate pattern! And.. because of the weirdness of tumblr messages, I don’t remember who! So I hope this makes it back to whatever fellow Homestuck fan requested it - let’s make some piles of plushies!  As usual, if anyone uses this pattern, please link back to my page, and also send me a picture! I’d love to see what people make! I want to see an army of scalemates!

I used a 3mm crochet hook, and Red Heart Super Saver yarn in “Spring Green”. I’m certain, however, that Homestuck fans will be keen to choose their own color and associated scalemate name scheme - for example, this little fella is named Rear Admiral Applebottom.

^Head:

This is definitely the hardest part of the scalemate! My idea for the head was to start with the snout and crochet out, instead of just making a round head and sewing a snout on - it makes the face smoother, but also gives you a bit of a surprise as to what the shape becomes when you stuff it - if it becomes too rounded, I just kind of smoosh more definition into the face?? The trick here, is that in one row, I put all the increases on one side of the circle so that it flares out into the forehead area.

(At this point, you can perform this step I describe below before finishing closing off the head, but I truly don’t think it made much of a difference!)

Stuff the head, then finish closing

^ Optional Step

Here’s something that I tried, but didn’t seem to make too much of a difference and you can likely skip it if you want. I tried to make an indent where the eyes go by using a sewing needle and thread and catching a bit of the yarn where the eye should go, then pulling it in and tying a knot. In the end, this really didn’t make a difference in how the head looked, and I don’t even think it makes sense with the design of scalemates, so PLEASE feel free to skip this - I was mostly experimenting with new techniques!

^ Adding eyes:

These buttons came in a sewing repair kit that I picked up at some point in my life, but they were almost exactly the size of 12mm safety eyes! The one important thing to remember is that since you’re sewing eyes on rather than using safety eyes, they ARE less safe! Don’t let animals or small children chew them off!? Other than that, how exciting it is to be able to choose the eye color - I’m sure at craft stores there are lots of great color and style options!

Spikes and Tail:

Ok, this part is very straight forward! The one challenging thing is to start crocheting around that small (3 stitches) magic circle - I find that to give them a sharper point, I push my crochet hook into the spike to stretch it out before stuffing.

Small spikes (make 2)

medium spikes (make 2)

large spikes (make 3, use one for tail)

Leave a long tail of yarn at the end of each spike, stuff them, and sew them onto the head. I would recommend using pins to hold them in place so that I can make sure they go on as symmetrically as possible.

^ Body:

This body is super straight forward - I imagine that you can actually do color changes to make the tummy out of yarn, but I chose to make the tummy with felt - either one I’m sure will look fine!

Leave a long tail of yarn and sew the body onto the head after stuffing! And while you’re at it, sew that tail on as well! 

^ Legs:

I’m so happy with how these turned out - to make them, I started with a chain 6 (the bottom of the foot), and crocheted around it. Then again I did some uneven decreases to make sure that the bottom of the leg was flush with the ground while the foot was somewhat distinct from the leg. Again, when it comes to yarn work, some fudging and hand-shaping goes a long long way!

With the decreases, the reason the decreases came in such a weird spot for me was that I wanted the 3 (or 2) decreases to happen OVER the TOP of the leg - so however it turns out for you, just make sure you’re not decreasing on the long end of the oval!!!!

Leave a long tail on the legs and sew them on to the body! 

The final thing I added was a little white tummy, which I just cut from felt and sewed on. Of course, any color will work, this is just what I happened to have on hand as I made the Admiral relatively early on in my crochet career. 

And that’s all! I’m afraid I didn’t take great pictures while I was making him, so apologies for that. If you get stuck on something in the pattern or something is looking wrong, please feel free to message me. Other than that, this is all in all a fairly simple amigurumi, especially compared to the massive work of art that is Homestuck. Happy crocheting!

Before Camo dragon heads out, he threw a little party with the other dragons in my collection!

So cuddleh

Homestuck Scalemate

I made a scalemate from Andrew Hussie's incomparable "Homestuck"!  It's a gift to myself for catching up with the archives without even becoming a trollkin ;-)  In the spirit of scalmate naming conventions, I've named him "Rear Admiral Applebottom".  ^_^

I spent a lot of time looking at reference pics of scalemates - both the comic and other fanart!  They're rather variable in snout length/width, and I knew with crochet I wouldn't be able to make as dramatic concavities as can be done with sewing.  I decided to crochet from the nose outward, rather than doing the head and snout separately, so I could really work on elongating the face. 

The buttons I used were actually from an old sewing travel kit.  I considered going to the craft store to find buttons for this purpose specifically, but I kinda liked how these ones looked and liked that they had been moving around with me for years unused.  They're actually about the size 12mm doll eyes.

I crocheted each of the 6 horns separately as cones and then sewed them on.  I also did the tail and body as two separate pieces.  I've found that sewing with the yarn makes seams that are relatively unnoticeable.

I made the feet and legs all in one piece, starting with an oval and decreasing unevenly to create the leg.  The last thing I did was make a little felt tummy, which I sewed on rather than glued because I wanted it to lie very flat against his stomach.

He's a little WONK-eyed from the front, because I'm always bad at making things symmetric :-/

And there you have it!  A cuddley companion perfect for MSpaint adventuring!