Dragon Puppet: Free Knitting Pattern

This puppet uses super bulky yarn — making it quick to knit!

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Here’s a free knitting pattern for a dragon hand puppet!

It’s fast and easy to make!

Let’s get right to it!

Supplies Needed:

Please note that you only need one skein of yarn for each color if using the same yarn I used (links provided), and you will have LOTS of yarn leftover!

Green Super Bulky Yarn for the body
Purple Super Bulky Yarn for the wings and spines
Red Super Bulky Yarn for the tongue
White Super Bulky Yarn for the whites of the eyes and teeth
Black Super Bulky Yarn for the inside of the mouth and pupils
10 mm (US 15) circular knitting needles (straight needles in this size optional)
6 mm (US 10) straight knitting needles
Tapestry needle and scissors
Optional pipe cleaners to add extra support/shape to the wings of your dragon

Stitches Used

To make this puppet, you will need to know the following stitches:

Knit
Purl
KFB
K2TOG
SSK

The Body

With green super bulky yarn and 10mm circular knitting needles, join 20 stitches.

Round 1: Purl

Round 2: Knit

Round 3: Purl

Round 4: Knit

Round 5: Knit

Round 6: Knit

Round 7: Knit

Round 8: Knit

Round 9: Knit

Round 10: Knit

Round 11: Knit

Round 12: Knit

Round 13: Knit

Round 14: Knit

Round 15: Knit

Round 16: Knit

Round 17: Knit

Round 18: Knit

Round 19: Knit

Round 20: Knit

Round 21: Knit

Round 22: Knit

Round 23: Knit

Round 24: Knit

Begin working on first 10 stitches only, working back and forth in rows.

Back/Top of head:

Row 1: Knit (turn)

Row 2: Purl (turn)

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: Knit

Row 6: Purl

Row 7: Knit

Row 8: Purl

Row 9: SSK, Knit 6, K2TOG (8 stitches remaining)

Row 10: Purl

Row 11: SSK, Knit 4, K2TOG (6 stitches remaining)

Cast off purl-wise. Reattach yarn to remaining 10 stitches and work for bottom of head.

Bottom of head:

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: Knit

Row 6: Purl

Row 7: SSK, Knit 6, K2TOG (8 stitches remaining)

Row 8: Purl

Row 9: SSK, Knit 4, K2TOG (6 stitches remaining)

Cast off purl-wise.

Inner Mouth

Next, knit the inside of the mouth.

With black super bulky yarn and 10mm knitting needles, cast on 6 stitches. Work in rows.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: KFB, Knit 4, KFB (8 stitches on needles)

Row 4: Purl

Row 5: KFB, Knit 6, KFB (10 stitches on needles)

Row 6: Purl

Row 7: Knit

Row 8: Purl

Row 9: Knit

Row 10: Purl

Row 11: Knit

Row 12: Purl

Row 13: Knit

Row 14: Purl

Row 15: Knit

Row 16: Purl

Row 17: Knit

Row 18: Purl

Row 19: Knit

Row 20: Purl

Row 21: SSK, Knit 6, K2TOG (8 stitches remaining)

Row 22: Purl

Row 23: SSK, Knit 4, K2TOG (6 stitches remaining)

Cast off purl-wise

Tongue:

With red super bulky yarn and 10mm knitting needles, cast on 4 stitches. Work in rows.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Knit

Row 5: Knit

Row 6: Knit

Row 7: Knit

Row 8: Knit

Row 9: Knit

Row 10: Knit

Row 11: SSK, K2TOG (2 stitches remaining)

Row 12: Knit

Row 13: Knit

Row 14: K2TOG

Break yarn and secure.

Teeth

With white super bulky yarn and 6mm knitting needles, cast on 4 stitches. Work in rows.

Make 2 Teeth.

Row 1: Purl

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: Purl

Row 4: SSK, K2TOG

Row 5: Purl

Row 6: K2TOG

Break yarn and secure.

Eyes

With 6 mm knitting needles, cast on 6 stitches. Work in rows.

Make 2 eye pieces in black, and 2 eye pieces in white. Use super bulky yarn for both colors.

Row 1: Purl

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: Purl

Row 4: Knit

Row 5: Purl

Row 6: SSK, Knit 2, K2TOG (4 stitches remaining)

Row 7: Purl

Row 8: Knit 1, K2TOG, Knit 1 (3 stitches remaining)

Cast off purl-wise.

Spines

With purple super bulky yarn and 10mm circular knitting needles, join 12 stitches. Work in rounds.

Make 3 spines.

Round 1: Knit

Round 2: Knit

Round 3: Knit

Round 4: Knit

Round 5: SSK, Knit 2, K2TOG. Repeat on both needles.

Round 6: Knit

Round 7: SSK, K2TOG. Repeat on both needles.

Round 8: Knit

Round 9: K2TOG twice.

Round 10: Move last 2 stitches onto one needle and K2TOG.

Break yarn and secure.

Wings

With 10mm knitting needles and purple super bulky yarn, cast 4 stitches. Work in rows.

Make 2 wings.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit

Row 3: KFB, Knit 2, KFB

Row 4: Knit 1, Purl 4, Knit 1

Row 5: KFB, Knit 4, KFB

Row 6: Knit 1, Purl 6, Knit 1

Row 7: KFB Knit 6, KFB

Row 8: Knit 1, Purl 8, Knit 1

Row 9: KFB, Knit 8, KFB

Row 10: Knit 1, Purl 10, Knit 1

Row 11: KFB, Knit 10, KFB

Row 12: Knit 1, Purl 12, Knit 1

Row 13: Knit

Row 14: Cast OFF 2 stitches. Cast ON 4 stitches. Cast OFF 8 stitches. Cast ON 4 stitches. Cast OFF 8 stitches. Cast ON 4 stitches. Cast OFF 8 stitches.

Break yarn and secure.

Wing Supports

With 10mm circular knitting needles and purple super bulky yarn, join 4 stitches.

Knit around until supports are about 4″ long.

Cast off.

Make 2.

Assembly Instructions

To assemble your dragon puppet, use a tapestry needle and matching yarn colors for each portion.

Always tightly knot your yarn when you’re finished sewing, and weave in your ends of yarn.

Turn the body of your puppet inside out.

With right sides together, sew the black inside of the mouth to the green body of your puppet. I used green yarn for this portion.

Turn your puppet right side out.

Sew the supports onto your wings, at the top of each wing.

Optional step: Use pipe cleaners to add extra support and shape to your wings! Fold a pipe cleaner in half to stick inside each wing support. Weave a pipe cleaner into the back of each wing (try and choose a color that relatively matches the wings!) and bend all the pointy ends of the pipe cleaners so that they stay in place and don’t poke any little hands!

Sew the bottom support of each wing onto the back of the puppet.

Use a little bit of yarn to tie the tops of the wings about 1″ from the body of the puppet. You can also use another piece of yarn to tie supports about 3″ from each top of the wings. This will give the wings a stable “flying” look to your puppet.

For the eyes, put one green eye piece and one white eye piece right sides together.

Sew around each eye, leaving the bottom open. Turn right side out.

Use a little black yarn to sew a long slit in the center of each white of the eye for the pupil.

Make sure that you ONLY sew through the WHITE part of the eye, not the back/green part!

Leave the ends of your yarn long, and stuff the ends of the yarn inside each eye. This should be enough to act as a way to “stuff” the eyes to make them more 3 dimensional. If you need them to be a little more rounded, you can fill them with wool/poly filling.

Use red yarn to sew the tongue in the back center/middle of the mouth.

Use white yarn to sew each tooth to the top/sides of the mouth.

Lastly, use matching yarn to sew each of the 3 spines of the dragon to the center back of your dragon (go BETWEEN the wings).

Again, don’t forget to weave in all of your ends!

I hope you have a lovely time knitting this dragon puppet!

This puppet should fit a child’s hand and/or an adult’s hand (probably best suited for a mother’s/grandmother’s hand, but this puppet does stretch enough that my husband can also fit in it, too!)