purlJam

<planning>
1. **Design Strategy**: Create an "advanced" lace dragon amigurumi that follows the Simple Amigurumi Animal template: separate head, body and limbs, plus lace-style wings and decorative dorsal spines (scales). Use worsted weight yarn (standard worsted/aran) with UK crochet terminology. Construction will prioritise a clean, top-down head worked in continuous spiral for a smooth face and easy placement of safety eyes; the body will be worked from the neck down to produce a seated dragon shape, with separate legs and arms sewn on. Wings will be worked flat with open (lace) stitch patterns using slightly smaller hook to keep defining holes. Spines (scales) will be worked as small triangular motifs and sewn along the back and tail for a lace-but-scaly look.

2. **Construction Plan**: 
- Head: worked in continuous spiral (magic ring start), increases to a working circumference, even rounds, then decreases to head/neck join.
- Body: worked from neck down; pick up stitches around neck opening and work downwards, with increases to belly width then even rounds for length, and decreasing for the base. Leave openings for sewing legs and attaching tail/wings.
- Limbs: legs and arms crocheted in the round, stuffed, and sewn to the body.
- Tail: tapered cone worked in rounds, stuffed lightly.
- Wings: flat panels crocheted and edged with a scallop; worked with chains and trebles to create lace effect, then lightly stiffened if desired.
- Spines: small triangular motifs crocheted individually and sewn along centre back and tail.
- Assembly: sew parts with tapestry needle; place safety eyes before final stuffing of head; use stitch counts and round references to place features precisely.

3. **Quality Assurance**: 
- Common pain points: uneven stitch counts on increases/decreases; mismatched joins between head and body stitch counts; too-loose fabric for safety eyes causing stuffing to show. Addressed by:
  - Using explicit stitch counts each round.
  - Using continuous spiral for head to avoid visible seam and to ease eye placement.
  - Giving recommended hook sizes and a tension (gauge) and converting stitches to centimetres so placements can be verified.
  - Recommending slightly smaller hook for wings for better lace definition and a tighter fabric for body/head (reduces stuffing peep-through).
  - Inline math checks for stitch-to-cm conversions used for safety-eye spacing and finished dimensions.

4. **Final Calculations**:
- Tension (gauge): 16 dc x 18 rows = 10 cm on 4.0 mm hook (UK dc = US sc). Therefore one dc ≈ 10/16 = 0.625 cm; one row ≈ 10/18 ≈ 0.556 cm. (Inline: 10 ÷ 16 = 0.625 cm per stitch; 10 ÷ 18 = 0.555... cm per row.)
- Target finished size: approx 22–25 cm tall from top of head to tail tip when seated without stretching wings. Key dimensions derived from gauge:
  - Head circumference target = 36 stitches → width = 36 × 0.625 cm = 22.5 cm circumference → diameter = 22.5 ÷ π ≈ 7.16 cm (Inline check: 36 × 0.625 = 22.5 cm; 22.5 ÷ 3.1416 ≈ 7.16 cm).
  - Body circumference target = 42 stitches → circumference = 42 × 0.625 = 26.25 cm → diameter ≈ 26.25 ÷ π ≈ 8.36 cm (Inline: