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!
Omg that is CUTE. His little tusks! But the flat thing is mystifying.
He came out great!
Cute photos too :)
Sooo cute!
he turned out great! love the chubby tummy.
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..
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.
super cute!!
Fantastic elephant! I would knit it in the round too. Glad you don’t have scary arthritis.
I love elephants and your little guy is precious.
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.
I like the purl rows that make up his trunk ‘ribs’. So cute.
Super cute!! I agree with you about the lazy pattern drafting, knitting as much in the round as you can makes way more sense!
I hope your thumb heals soon.
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