elephant!

Look what I found hiding in the grass today!


I finished putting her together on Saturday after slowly knitting all the pieces over the course of about a month or so. I’ve had some significant pain in my left thumb since I knit the Bulky Topper and the two berets over two weeks in February, so I’ve been laying off knitting for the past two months. I even bought a thumb brace and have been knitting no more than half an hour at a time; most days I don’t knit at all in an attempt to get my thumb healed. A visit to the doctor this past week indicates it might “just” be tendinitis, but that’s better than the scary arthritis Dr. Google told me it was. I need to make an appointment with a hand specialist for a week from now. Anyway, all this to say that this elephant took a while to make.

But it still took me far less time to knit than the pattern would have had me: The pattern inexplicably has you knit every piece flat. Every. Piece. The body alone is made up of 3 pieces. The ears? Two pieces each. Lazy pattern development, if you ask me—so I knit all the pieces in the round. I even picked up stitches and knit the base of the body directly to the torso. The ears? Knit in the round and finished off with a three-needle bindoff. I had some trouble with the head because I never checked all the abbreviations before diving in: In the head you work a kfb when it says “inc” (as opposed to the M1 you use in all the other pieces), but I didn’t realize that at first. That was a case of user error, but I’m sure others have been thrown off by it. I did a short little (not pictured) crochet chain for the tail instead of the called-for braid. All this to say, if you are looking to knit out of Knitted Wild Animals, I recommend rewriting the pattern entirely to save yourself loads of seaming.

Still, all in all, it’s a cute one! See all the details on Ravelry.

13 Responses to elephant!

  1. Janieb says:

    In the wild shots are fantastic. Seriously so much seaming is crazy, I would totally have gone the dpn route too. Yay on tendinitis, way more favourable than arthritis – wish I’d scored that win. Does resting equate to more quilting..

    • Carol Cooley says:

      Try casein needles – while still available – in the UK. My hands ache and if only I had known years ago, I would have bought loads.

  2. Ana says:

    So cute! Want to hug that little thing. :)

    I was thinking that maybe the in the flat thing comes from a sewing construction. I was just looking at a friendĀ“s kid doll and this being made flat reminded me of that.

  3. Mary says:

    I love your elephant!
    I have seen this pattern but do not like seaming pieces together.
    Would you be able to share your pattern for knitting it in the round?
    I do not yet possess the knitting skills to adapt a flat pattern to in the round.
    Thanks,
    Mary

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