Today I decided my kitchen needed a little boost and I started with the idea of a new hand towel for my Florida range. Now that I am retired, we spend part of the year in Southern Florida. (Getting out of that Michigan cold.) I love nature and have a nature themed home so I thought an alligator towel would fit right in. For this project I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn in a sage green color and an I hook. I love this yarn, it is so easy to work with and can be found at most larger stores.
To begin with I had to decide on a stitch. I thought a simple st of single crochet and double crochet would make a great rough texture that would look more “Alligator-Like.” So I single crocheted in the 2nd ch from the hook and then I double crocheted in the next st. I repeated ths pattern across the row of chains. Then I chained 1 st and turned my work around.
I made a single crochet in the 1st double crochet and did a double crochet in the 1st single crochet. Once again I repeated this pattern across the row. I then repeated this row until my piece was 12″ long. I then needed to decrease my stitches for the head portion.
To decrease for the head I single crocheted 2 stitches together and then I double crocheted the next 2 sts together. I repeated this process across the row and decreased my stitches by half leaving me with 18 stitches.
For the next row I continued working in my standard pattern of single crochet in each double crochet and double crocheting in each sc. I repeated this row until the head was 5″ long. Once the head was long enough I had to create the snout, so I had to begin decreasing stitches once again. Below is the way I did this.
Row 1. Sc first 2 sc together for a decrease. (Sc in next st, dc in next st) 7 times. Sc last 2 sc tog for a decrease. (16 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 2. Sc first 2 sc tog for dec. (Dc in next st, sc in next st) 6 times. Sc last 2 sc together. (14 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 3. Sc first 2 sc tog for dec. (Sc in next st, dc in next st) 5 times. Sc last 2 sc together. (12 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 4. Sc first 2 sc tog for dec. (Dc in next st, sc in next st) 4 times. Sc last 2 sc together. (10 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 5. Sc first 2 sc tog for dec. (Sc in next st, dc in next st) 3 times. Sc last 2 sc together. (8 sts made.) Ch 2, turn. Row 6. (Beg ch2 does. NOT count as 1st dc.) (Dc in next st, sc in next st across) Ch 1 and turn. (8 sts made.) Row 7. Sc first 2 sc tog for dec. (Dc in next st, dc in next st) 2 times. Sc last 2 sc together. (6 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Rows 8-10. (Sc in next st, dc in next st) across row. (6 sts made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 11. Sc first 2 sc tog. Sc in next st, dc in next st. Sc last 2 sts tog. (4 sc made.) Ch 1, turn. Row 12. Sc first 2 sts tog. Sc last 2 srs tog. End off and weave in end.
Once these rows were finished I single crocheted around the entire piece.
Now that the towel was finished the fun began and I started to make it really look like and aligator. For the eyes I used two 1″ black buttons.
For the teeth I used a small crochet hook and cotton thread.
I started with a chain of 6. I then slip stitched in the 2nd charin from the hook. In the next chain I make a single crochet. I made a half double crochet in the next stitch and a double crochet in the next stitch. In the next stitch I made 2 treble crochets. I then made a ch of 7 and repeated the whole process 4 more times until a total of 5 teeth had been made. I cut my thread and repeated the steps for the opposite side.
Once I had two sets of teeth it was time to sew them to the snout.
I also decided to sew two small buttons to the snout to make nostrils for the aligator.
After all this was finished I needed a way to hang it from my range so I sewed a 1″ snap to the towel.
All that was left was to hang the towel from my range.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you would like a print friendly, more detailed pattern please check out my pattern store on Etsy – Creeksendinc