Baby Elephant from Hansigurumi.
Knitted with Cascade 220 wool, small amounts of pink and gray.
Knitted on US size 3 Crystal Palace Bamboo DPN's.
Pattern Modifications: Decreased and pulled through remaining stitches for foot pad rather than picking up stitches along bottom of leg, and used only one contrasting color.
Ravelers find Zoe here.
Meet Zoe, named after, and soon to be mailed to my niece as a belated gift for her fifth birthday. Zoe is another great creation of Hansi Singh of Hansigurumi. I started this baby elephant yesterday morning and finished her up by noon today. And I really had a great time with this pattern because, minus attaching the head, there was no seaming at all. (Did I just say that... about a toy?) Yes, it's true! No seaming. But I'm not going to lie, if I were a beginning knitter I would stick to one of Hansi's easier patterns, like the octopus for example. This pattern is pretty darn fickle, and at times I think I had every size 3 DPN I own sticking out somewhere. No seaming is wonderful, but to be able to do that with such a small pattern, you make up for it with picking up little stitches in lots of little places.
I am such a Hansigurumi fan. Her patterns are so unique and you are never bored while knitting them. I think I knitted four straight rows in the entire elephant. Not to mention you get to practice lots of fun knitting techniques that you don't always use everyday. For this pattern I learned the Three Needle Bindoff, which was really easy, but I've just never needed it before!
Zoe's birthday was actually a couple of months ago, and I am way behind in getting this off to her, but her sister Rachel also has a birthday coming up, so I'm off to make one more toy to go in the gift package from Kansas. Hopefully they won't notice!
I modified the tail for the baby elephant as well in this pattern. The original called for picking up stitches and knitting a semi-tube. But quite frankly, I was tired of picking up stitches, so instead I opted for using three scrap strands of my main color yarn and pulling them through a stitch, then braiding. And of course I left Zoe some "fringe" to shoo flies. I also zigzagged a little Z on there for Miss Zoe so hopefully she and Rachel won't fight over the baby elephant! (I've got two myself, they fight over everything...)
And I sure do love the little face on this baby elephant! I think we're going to miss her around here. For some reason, we all seem to get attached to all the little toys I knit. I had plans to knit two, one for Zoe and one for Rachel. But I'm really thinking I'm going to do another Hansigurumi pattern for Rachel. Rachel is a bit older and I think she would really get a kick out of a Dumbo Octopus, or Squid-a-licious, or maybe even a big 'ol Cuttlefish. But any way you look at it, I know the oldest kid in the bunch (namely, me!) will have a blast in the process!
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ginnie DATE: 04/27/2008 03:42:32 PM How adorable! My favorite part is the trunk.
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Stacey DATE: 04/27/2008 04:19:16 PM I luv elephants! This one is so cute!
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Leslie DATE: 04/27/2008 05:36:42 PM That is one adorable elephant! I love it.
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Myriam DATE: 04/27/2008 08:45:03 PM Awwwww how CUUTTEE!! i love it!!! You are so good at making the knitted toys!!!! I love when you make a new one!!!
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Ulla V. DATE: 04/28/2008 03:21:38 AM You always find the most amazing patterns! This elephant is wonderful - but I think that it would be too complicated for my fingers to knit ;0) How tall is Zoe the elephant in real life?
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Jennifer DATE: 04/28/2008 07:15:53 AM Oh my gosh Ulla she is tiny! She is 4.5" from foot to foot and 3" tall. Her little ears (that look so big) are only 2.5" long. She's a baby for sure! ;-)
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Alice DATE: 04/28/2008 08:20:57 AM So cute as always! I love the darling little tassle on the end of her tail :)
----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: Shannon DATE: 04/30/2008 10:00:34 PM Zoe is absolutely adorable! I love how you added the pink details. So sweet. :)
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