Emma’s Elephant

My father showed one of his clients my knitting blog after I posted the pics of the elephant I made for my mom’s birthday. Well, apparently this woman’s four year old daughter saw the picture and fell in love with the little guy. She made her mom print out a picture to hang in her room and then another one that she could carry around with her! Darling! So, of course I had to make her one. It was a bit tedious making a second one of these so soon after I had made the first (much like the tedium of my Sheldon army…) But, it was a really great chance to make all the changes that I wanted to make after I knit the first one. I think I made a lot of improvements this time. Hooray! Pics:

yarn details
Red Heart Super Saver in Pink
Red Heart Classic Solid in Parakeet
Red Heart Soft Solid in Tangerine and Navy
Caron Simply Soft Brights in Limelight
Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Ranch Red

findings
black safety eyes (12 mm), polyfill, polypellets, old nylons

project details
pattern: “Elefante” by Susan B. Anderson – it’s free! http://www.knitterella.com/SusanBAnderson/ElefantePattern.pdf
needles: size 4 DPNs (set of 4)
hook: E (for the ears)
yarn used: hardly made a dent in any of the skeins
duration: August 26 – October 3, 2008

notes
– I got to make the major changes I wanted to make from last time: I knit on size 4 needles instead of size 5 for a tighter gauge and I used metal instead of the bamboo. It was a lot easier with the sharp points – I only had a set of four so I had to spread all the stitches over 3 needles, but it wasn’t too bad.
– This time I made the trunk longer so his nose would hit the ground when he stood up. (I knit it to measure more like 1.5 inches rather than 1.25) (In my original notes, I said I wanted to make the trunk shorter, but upon thinking about it – it actually needed to be longer).
– I lined the pieces with old scraps of nylons to keep the poly pellets from escaping. This worked out well (details in today’s other post).
– This guy has size 12mm eyes rather than the size 10 eyes I put on Mom’s. No real reason, I just thought they seemed cuter.
– I used jogless stripes again, but this time I didn’t weave in the ends as I went – or at all. I just tied knots. It took a little while to learn to tie the knot at the right tension, but I caught on.
– I’m not super happy with where I placed the legs. They are all too close together – I wish I had spaced them out more. I had trouble sewing them on for some reason – It was like I put the first two on, and then all of a sudden there was no room for the others, and they looked crooked and all sorts of crazy stuff.