A Tower of Tooterphants!

Tooterphants are friendly little creatures, similar in shape to elephants, if not in size. However, they have wide trumpet-shaped trunks that they use to make tooting noises to communicate with one another. They also use their trunks, or tooters, to suck up their food - should you want to attract one, leave a trail of interesting treats such as raisins and they may follow it. They live in groups, and enjoy acrobatic games where they climb on top of each other to form a tower of Tooterphants - luckily their rounded shape makes them bouncy, so they don't mind when they fall down.

These cute creatures are based on patterns I'd made in the past - several years ago I made an Eater of Socks for a swap, based on the description of a creature that appears briefly in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. Given that it eats odd socks, I gave it a wide trunk/snout to suck them up, and made its legs striped like socks to act as camouflage. Then, a few years later, I made a Sky Elephant, using the previous pattern as a base, but making it bigger. The Sky Elephant was made from blue and white variegated yarn and had fluffly cloud-like ears.

So, I went back and revisited these patterns. I had some nice self-striping yarn that I wanted to try out (King Cole Splash DK), and I thought these would be the perfect patterns to use to show off all the colours nicely. I made a few minor changes, but I liked the patterns pretty much as they were. They have a nice compact shape and sweet faces, and I think they would make good toys for young children because they have a lot of bits to grab hold of. The pattern, which has all the details to make both sizes, is now available in my Etsy shop.

Bazaar Patterns: Incy Wincy Elephant

Here's another pattern from last year's school bazaar, check out this previous post for full details:
http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.com/2010/02/bazaar-patterns-teeny-tiny-turtle.html

Incy Wincy Elephant

You will need:
Small amount of grey yarn.
Black yarn for features.
Small amount of stuffing.
3.5mm (E) hook.

Special stitch instructions:
4 dc pop: popcorn stitch for legs. Work 4 dc into 1 sc, take hook out leaving loop, put hook through 1st dc & pull loop through.

Round 1: Ch2, work 6 sc into 1st ch, join to first sc with ss - 6 sc.
Round 2: BLO Sc in each sc around - 6 sc.
Round 3 - 6: (4 rounds) Sc in each sc around - 6 sc.
Round 7: [2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc] 3 times – 9 sc.
Round 8: [2 sc in next sc, sc in next 2 sc] 3 times – 12 sc.
Round 9: [2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc] 6 times – 18 sc.
Round 10: Sc in each sc around - 18 sc.
Round 11: [Ear FLO: ss into next sc, ch 2, 2 dc in same sc, 2 dc in next 2 sc, ch 2, ss into last sc], sc in next 6 sc, [Ear FLO: ss into next sc, ch 2, 2 dc in same sc, 2 dc in next 2 sc, ch 2, ss into last sc], sc in next 6 sc - 18 st.
Round 12: 3 sc in the next 3 back loops (of the sc the ears are worked into), sc in next 6 sc, 3 sc in the next 3 back loops, sc in next 6 sc - 18 sc.
Round 13: Sc in next 4 sc, 4 dc pop in next sc, sc in next 2 sc, 4 dc pop in next sc, sc in next 10 sc – 18 st.
Round 14 - 16: (3 rounds) Sc in each st around - 18 sc.
Round 17: Sc in next 5 sc, 4 dc pop in next sc, sc in next 2 sc, 4 dc pop in next sc, sc in next 9 sc – 18 st.
Round 18: Sc in each st around - 18 sc.
Round 19: [Sc2tog, sc in next sc] 6 times – 12 sc.
Round 20: [Sc2tog] 6 times – 6 sc.
To make tail: Ch 4, ss into 2nd ch from hook, ss in next 2 ch.
FO, leaving a length of yarn.

Use black yarn to sew eyes and a mouth as you wish, stuff and use length of grey yarn to sew up hole at bottom

Flora the Elephant

I've finally finished my first pattern to go in my Etsy shop. She's a cute little elephant that I'd made a couple of times before so I knew I'd be able to recreate her. Having two little boys means I don't usually make things wearing pink dresses, but I do love elephants and it's fun to combine them together. I love the shape of her head and I think she looks very shy.