The Antlephant

Hi!

Welcome to the first entry of my craft blog (NOT!).

Anyway, here is where I will show you all the kinda-cute, kinda-weird items I'll make while learning how to knit!

The first item I want to show you is the Antlephant.

I made this little knit stuffed animal for Orlando. I ordered A First Book of Knitting For Children, thinking that I would start knitting some of the projects so Orlando could eventually learn to knit.

We looked at the book together, Orlando chose the Elephant and the color orange, my mom lent me some yarn, my sister-in-law lent me some needles, and off I went, dutifully following the pattern. I had to relearn how to cast on, cast off, drop stitches, and sew with a bodkin.

Orlando helped me stuff her, sang the cute little knitting rhyme with me from the book, and he picked out the buttons for her eyes.

Here's how the little guy looks in the book:





And here's how the the little guy I made looks in REAL LIFE.







Orlando loves her, sleeps with her every night, gave her the name Susyanna, asks me to nurse her, and tells me what she's thinking.

He likes her just the way she is, though every person he's proudly shown her to says, "Er, what a cute ...anteater?!"

Hey, thanks! (Even Rom said it looked like an anteater!)

I think I will try to sew her trunk down so she no longer looks like she's snarfling for ants; and I might re-do her ears. I left them floppy instead of rounding them out. She clearly needs to be fatter but she is already bursting at the seams. What a skinny little elephant!

I've already started on Elephant Number Two for Child Number Two. Stay tuned for the wacky results. Maybe we'll end up with a Rhinophant or a Elepotamus!