Sincel last July we are living really close to the city of Basel. The city is proud of its heraldic animal, the imaginary basilisk, and according to the legend, there was one living in a cave that used to exist in the Old town. If you want to find more about Basel and its basilisk check my blogpost about Basel.
It is not a really big animal. The fountain basilisk (shown in the photo below) in the actual size of the legendary basilisk.

Do you remember my nice red dragon Temeraire? He is positioned on top of my library, guarding my books. But it has been quite some time now that he has been asking for a friend and what else than a basilisk. I did a bit of searching, but there was no pattern interesting enough for what I wanted. So I decided to make it myself, so as to fit Temeraire. I used as a base the dragon body of Temeraire from the Amigurumi to go pattern. But the head is not the same as a dragon’s; it rather resembles the one of a rooster. That part I created myself. and I am going to offer it to you for free.
The abbreviations I use in the pattern are:
ch: chain
sc: single crochet
hdc: half double crochet
dc: double crochet
inc: increase – make two in the same stitch
dec: decrease – combine two stitches to one
[…]: repeat this sequence
What you need is a hook 4.00mm. As I have explained in previous posts, I like the Clover Amour ergonomic hooks, so I used the CLOVER Amour 4.00 mm hook. I made Temeraire with Stylecraft Special DK 1010 – Matador and I decided to make my basilisk black, as the colour of the coat of arm of Basel, so I used Stylecraft Special DK 1002 – Black. for the body.

For the head of the basilisk use Stylecraft Special DK 1002 – Black:
- Start with a magic ring of 6 sc (6)
- [inc] x 6 (12)
- [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
- [2 sc, inc] x6 (24)
- [5 sc, inc] x 4 (28)
- [6 sc, inc] x 4 (32)
- 12 hdc, 20 sc (32)
- repeat row 7 (32)
- 1 hdc, 10 dc, 1 hdc, [4 sc, inc] x 4 (36)
- 1 hdc, 10 dc, 1 hdc, 24 sc (36)
- 12 hdc, 24 sc (36)
- repeat row 11 (36)
- [hdc, dec} x 4, [sc, dec] x 8 (24)
- [2 sc. dec] x 6 (18)
- 18 sc (18)
Start filling the head and keep filling it till the end - [sc, dec] x 6 (12)
- [dec] x 6 (6)
bind off. It is not important to close the hole as the beak will be covering it.
In order to have a proper rooster, we need a beak, wattles and a comb. For these ones I used Stylecraft Special DK 1114 – Sunshine. It is a shade between yellow and orange and it felt more fitting than than either of the two other colours. And here is how I made them:
The beak consists of two parts, the upper and lower one.

Upper beak part
- start with a magic ring of 6 sc (6)
- sc, hdc, 2 dc, hdc, sc (6)
- [inc] x 6 using only sc (12)
- 2 sc, 2 hdc, 4 dc, 2 hdc, 2 sc (12)
- [sc, inc[ x 6 (18)
- 4 sc, 3 hdc, 4 dc. 3 hdc, 4 sc (18)
- 18 sc (18)
- 18 sc (18)
fill it with a bit of cotton batting, bind off and leave string for sewing
Lower beak part
- start with a magic ring of 6 sc (6)
- [inc] x 6 (12)
- [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
- [2 sc, inc] x 6 (24)
fold the circle in two and close it with 10 sc
The wattles from the side The wattels from the bottom
Wattles
- ch 5, turn, 4 sc (4)
- inc, sc, sc, inc (6)
- sc, hdc, sc, sc, hdc, sc (6)
- 6 sc (6)
Make two of these and sew them together leaving the bottom open

Comb
- ch 9, 2 sc in the first one, 6 sc, 3sc in the last one, 7 sc from the other side (18)
- [2 sc, inc] x 6 (24)
- [sc, hdc, inc with 2 dc, hdc) x 6 (30)
- 30 sc (30)
bind off and leave string for seweing
In order to assembly the head you need to see the individual parts on it. The head is rather egg shaped. The magic ring is the back of the head, while the part where the hdc and dc are is the top of it and the sc the bottom. The comb goes on the top of the head and the wattles, once the two parts are sewed together, are sewed on the botton part, opposite to the comb. The two parts of the beak are sewed approximately at the height of the 14th row. Sew first the upper part in such a way that it looks nicely at the front of the egg-shaped head and the bottom part just under the upper part. The bottom part is sewed with the folded side of the circle to the head.

The wings, spikes and eyes are done according to the Amigurumi to go pattern, but there are a few changes compared to the dragon:
- The spikes stop at the bottom of the head and they don’t continue on the head. I made them with Stylecraft Special DK 1114 – Sunshine too.
- The head of the dragon is a bit too heavy, so it is better to use some wire for support. This is not a problem for the basilisk. Its head is less prolongated and its barycentre is more centred than in the case of the dragon.
Since I made a basilisk, I embroider a Basel coat of arm on his belly!
The basilisk from the front, with the Basel coat of arms on his belly The basilisk from the side
How do you like my basilisk? Doesn’t he fit nicely with Temeraire?

P.S. Concerning the links used here, please check my Disclaimer.