The cute.

I am officially on the bandwagon, people. I made Elijah and I am in love- with the pure cleverness of the pattern, with the relief of making a seamless toy, and with the flat out unadulterated cuteness that is this little elephant. I mean seriously people, look at this thing...



Pattern: Elijah by ysolda
Yarn: One skein of Cotton-Ease in Snow and scraps (literally scraps, as in pulled apart a tangled little mess I found under the couch) of Cotton-Ease in Berry
Needles: Size 5 DPNs. Next time I might use size 4s.
Modifications: Very minor- made the feet pink, didn't use french knots for eyes
For: A pregnant friend at work

There's not much else to say about the amazing pattern that hasn't been said before, but my spatial problems did lead me to have bit of trouble with the right ear. I just didn't get what Ysolda meant when she said to do the right ear in the same way except picking up stitches toward the back of the head first. It literally took me about 3 hours to figure it out, but now I've drawn myself a diagram so next time I'll be okay.



I also used a little trick to make sure the ears were picked up evenly on the right side (ask me how many times I picked up stitches incorrectly, forcing me to come up with this little trick. No, don't. I might cry. Again.) I took a DPN and put it through the stuffed head as evenly as I could at the top of the left ear. Then I took another one and put it through the poor elephant's head at the bottom of the left ear. So there were 2 DPNs ends sticking out on either side of the head. Then I picked up the stitches in a line between the 2 DPN ends on the right side. Finally, the right side looked identical to the left- woot!

Instead of french knot embroidered eyes, which were just too small, I just winged it and tried to make 2 bigger eyes using a method I made up as I went along.

Speaking of which, does anyone know a good tutorial about how to embroider knitting? I just can't seem to find one that answers the many questions I have about it. Thanks for any help!



I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this present, which was wildly well-received by my friend and coworkers and made me feel like a freaking superstar, cost less than $10 to make. The pattern was $6, I got a skein of Cotton-Ease with a 50% off coupon and some polyfill at Joann for about $4. If you are looking for a baby shower show stopper but aren't looking to spend a lot, Elijah is the ticket.