Introducing . . .

Ellington!

Here he is, perched atop my monitor at the office while I "work."

Pattern: Elefante, by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Daffodil (1 skein ) and some shade of green (1/4 of a skein, if that, I used some leftovers I had lying around).
Mods: Knit the ears instead of crochet. Did not take notes, as evidenced by the fact that the ears are not actually the same size. Probably could've fixed that with blocking, but forgot about it by the time I sat down to knit him up last night. Ah well.

Thoughts: OMG!!!1!eleventy He's sooooooo cute!!! I can't even believe I have to give him away. If I hadn't told Mommy Maureen that I was making a knit elephant for baby Carver, I would probably keep him. I luuuuuuuurv him.



Useful thoughts: This was my first knit toy, and it really wasn't hard at all. The worst part was sewing all the pieces together. I have zero sewing skills, so I basically just wound the yarn around in various directions until the bits seemed secure. Sadly, in addition to the mismatched ears, several of his appendages are sewn on a bit crooked. As a result, he can't "sit up" for photos, which is a bummer.
The first time I tried to sew the head and body together, I discovered the head was too top heavy, leading Ellington to topple over about as gracefully as an elephant can manage. So this time I sewed the head in place with the base of the nose equal with the legs. It's not as cute, but he can stand up. Office lighting is bad for photos, I'm going to try to take a few more outside during lunch.
The reason Ellington is here supervising me today is that I finished sewing in all his ends on the subway this morning. A bonus to stuffed toys is that really weaving the ends in isn't as necesary. I did a few maneuvers, and then pulled the ends through to the inside of the body, where the poly fill should keep them relatively secure.
His eyes are just bits of yarn because he's a baby gift. Were I keeping him for myself I would probably use buttons or beads.

I also finished Carver's blanket. Will save that for another post, hopefully I can snap a photo or two of him with the blankie tonight!