Off the needles

There's a little someone I'd like you meet:


Not the little bear obviously, who's still safely tucked away, but a friend who can't wait to meet him or her.

For the moment I think his name is Solomon, but the bear gets the ultimate say so, so I suspect he'll end up being called little grey elephant or something equally inspirational.

The pattern is another tried and tested baby favourite, Ysolda's Elijah, in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in colour 45 which I think might have been called Sea Foam.  

















For the moment Solomon is making fast friends with the other teddies and I can officially say that I have finished all the knitting that I'd planned for this little one.  I think that's called tempting fate, maybe I should cast on a pair of teeny tiny socks or something?

A tail of three little elephants

Or to be more accurate, a tale of three little girls.

Our story starts in a place to the north of here, where H's cousin and his wife live in (currently) snowy Scotland. It's a big family and these are technically second cousins and it happens that they are several years older than us.

P and C have three sons, now in their very late teens and early twenties and it seemed to all around that they had survived stage one of parenting; their children had reached adulthood. Time to kick back and worry about the next stage of these boys' lives.

But P and C are very special people and they felt that there was room around their table for another little one in need of a family, and so they have spent many years looking into adoption, domestic and international, but with no joy.

Until, this year, they got a call from their adoption agency in the UK to tell them that they had a little one year old baby girl. They asked a little bit about her background and learned that she was the youngest of five children, all put up for adoption; two boys and three girls. The boys had already been adopted but the three girls were looking for families and their new daughter was the first to be adopted.

P and C didn't want to see this family split up any more than it had to be, and so told the adoption agency that if it was OK with them, they would happily take all three.

And so these lovely people went from three grown sons, to three grown sons and the expectation of a daughter, to being parents of six; the three boys and Miss N (age 1), Miss K (aged 2) and Miss L (aged 4).

My sister in law has been to meet them, and says they are blond, cute and having a whale of a time. And as I respond to all new family arrivals by pulling out the knitting needles, I went in search of yarn and started the great Christmas/welcome to the family present endeavour.



Three small Elijah elephants from the Ysolda pattern. Last known to be called Little Pink, Little Green and Little Yellow; real names currently unknown. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino which has got to be my favourite yarn for these little toys - it knits up into a velvety fabric that is incredibly soft and cuddly and, if necessary, it will go in the washing machine.

And as it's Christmas, and cold and snowy where these little elephants are going to live, they needed Christmas outfits:

Little Christmas jackets (made out of some Patons Diploma Gold), to this pattern, with some made up fairisle for festive cheer.


And pretty Christmassy skirts.

Little Pink has dark green with gold stars so she will match my Christmas tree skirt,

Little Green and Little Yellow have the same pattern skirt - red with white drawings of cookies and gingerbread houses and candy canes - which came from a fat quarter bundle that I bought in New England years ago.

But it isn't Christmas all the time, and the feedback from my little cousin Peggy (age 3) is that she really enjoys playing dressing up with her Bella elephant, so clearly these three little ones need a change of clothes.

Et voila, perfect for a tea party:


Little Yellow (now loved by little Miss L) ...


... sports a jacket in green baby cashmerino, and a skirt covered with pictures of cakes, and biscuits and all good things.

Little Green (now with little Miss K), stylishly models a jacket in palest pink Rowan Wool Cotton, and a skirt patterned with giant cakes and glasses of champagne.

And little Pink, who may not get so many changes of clothes if N is only one, is attired in a pale blue Wool Cotton jacket, and a pastel polka dot skirt.

Their jackets did all get buttons, but it wasn't sunny that day!

I've posted the jacket pattern before here (scroll down to the bottom). The skirts are made with a rectangle about 6 or 7" by the width of a fat quarter and some 1/4" elastic (or whatever you have in your workbox).

• With the bottom long edge, fold up 1/4" wrong sides together and press. Then fold that strip up again on itself (to enclose the bottom raw edge), and sew along that edge.
• On the top long edge, fold down 1/4" wrong sides together and press. Then fold that strip down again 1/2" on itself (to make the casing for the elastic and enclose the raw edge) and sew from the back, as close to the edge as you can manage.
• Wrap the elastic around the waist of your elephant, pulling a little to put some tension in, and cut with a 1/2" overlap.
• Thread the elastic through the top casing.
• Fold the skirt, right sides together and sew the side seam with 1/4" seam allowance. I tend to start about an inch down from the top and reverse stitch to the top before sewing down and then reversing up an inch from the bottom to make the seam secure.
• If I had pinking shears this is where I would pink the raw edges of the seam to make them pretty, but I don't so I just tidied away all the loose ends.

Despite a little bit of crazy in getting everything done in time to get to the post well in advance of Christmas, I had fun making these little ones, and great fun designing their outfits from the available fabric stash.

I hope that the little girls like them. But even if they get stashed at the back of the toy box, their parents know that we cared enough to make something for the newest part of the family, and to spend that time thinking of them, and the girls and all of our hopes and dreams for the girls' future as part of a frankly giant extended family.

Merry Christmas little ones!

Arthur

Once upon a time, not very long ago, there was a little elephant, and his name was Arthur.



Arthur was born in the very middle of England, about as far from the sea and the mountains as you can get.

He was a very cheery little elephant and loved nothing better than to tell silly jokes to his cousin Ferdy.


"What's red and sits in the corner?" asks Arthur. "I don't know; what is red and sits in the corner?" replied Ferdy.

"A naughty strawberry!! Tee hee hee hee hee!!" giggled Arthur.

But for all Arthur's jokes and fun times with Ferdy, a part of him was a little bit sad. It started in the bottom of his paws, a queer twitchy sort of feeling that made him want to climb up to the top of the sofa and look out across the vastness of the sea of stash.

Then he felt it in his arms and legs, a longing to dive into an ocean and surf with the dolphins that lived on the windowsill. But the dolphins would not play with him, and they had been in the middle of England for so long that they could not remember how to get to the ocean, they could only tell of the crash of the waves and gravelling swish of the water on the beach, and wave their flippers to give off the tiniest, faintest tang of salt that Arthur might have thought was just some over-enthusiastic seasoning from the kitchen, if he hadn't caught the eye of the dolphin and known it for what it really was.

And one day, as he sat in the corner of the sofa, a great big tear rolled down his cheek and all the way along his trunk, and dropped into his lap, with a plop.

The Knitter heard the plop and came to find out what the matter was.

"I... I... I think I need to live by the mountains and the seaside." quavered Arthur. "I like living here with Ferdy and the Dolphins and the Stash, but I think I might be a seaside elephant after all".

"Well, that's OK," comforted the Knitter. "I'm a seaside Knitter you know, and I have to make sure I get to the seaside often enough or I get very sad too."

The Knitter thought for a while, and then realised the perfect solution;
"Arthur?"

"y-yes."

"How would you like to go and live in Scotland, by the sea and the mountains?"

"Could I? Could I really? I'd like that more than anything else in the world!"

And with that, Arthur looked visibly brighter and cheered up no end.

After not very much time at all (although it seemed like quite a while to Arthur), the day had come. He put on his woolly jacket and said goodbye to his friend Ferdy with a big hug and many promises to write by elephant mail (which is even slower than snail mail so they had better write good letters).



And so that he would not get lost on the journey, the Knitter made him a label to show to all the people that he met along the way, and he put it on proudly.



The little label says: My name is Arthur.

The big label says:

To D

Once upon a time a little elephant called Arthur came to live with us. He is a happy little elephant but he missed the sea and the mountains so we have sent him to live with you. He likes cuddles and giggles and roast chicken for dinner. Lots of love Carie and H xxxxx



And so Arthur, after a last roast chicken dinner, labels fluttering in the evening breeze, stepped out of the very middle of England and off on an adventure to a land far far away, where there are mountains and the ocean and lots more roast chicken dinners.



It isn't the end, because Arthur's adventures will continue with another little boy in a place quite north of here, but for now, dear reader, Arthur says adieu.

Arthur as you can see is a cousin of Ysolda Teague's Elijah Elephant as well as a cousin to my elephant Ferdy, and lest you are afraid that H's small cousin has made off with my favourite elephant, fear not, it was always intended that Arthur should live in Scotland, although H and I are both a little sad to see him go.

Arthur is a ball and a smidge of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 026 (sadly unnamed and I think possibly discontinued), knit on 3mm needles. I started him on Tuesday and finished him today; even given that I'm not at work at the moment this is a quick little knit, although a little fiddly in parts when you come to pick up for the arms and ears.

I found the most effective way to pick up for the ears is to pick up (but not knit) the required stitches using 2mm needles and then knit the stitches off those needles with the 3mm. It enables you to see whether the ears are nicely lined up without distorting any of the stitches majorly until it's just right.

Whilst Ferdy only needed a scarf, Arthur needs a little more warmth where he's going, so I made him a little jacket.


It is knit as a top down raglan so if you wanted one for your own elephant you could use any scraps of yarn you might have lying around and change colour or stripe as you needed. I used some leftover DK weight alpaca that I found in the stash.

Abbreviations:
k: knit
p: purl
kf&b: knit into the front and back of the stitch
pm: place marker
sl m: slip marker
st: stitch
k2tog: knit two together
yo: yarn over

Using 3.25mm circular needles.

- Cast on 25sts
1: kf&b twice, pm, (kf&b, k5, kf&b, pm) three times, kf&b twice.
2: k
3: kf&b, k2, kf&b, sl m, (kf&b, k7, kf&b, sl m) three times, kf&b, k2, kf&b
4: k
5: k to 1 st before marker, kf&b, sl m (kf&b, k to 1 st before marker, kf&b, sl m) three times, kf&b, knit to end
6: knit
7: k1, k2 tog, yo, k to 1 st before marker, kf&b, sl m (kf&b, k to 1 st before marker, kf&b, sl m) three times, kf&b, knit to end
8: knit
repeat rows 5 and 6 until there are 25 sts between each set of markers, 101 sts overall.

next row: k to marker, remove marker, cast off 25 sts, remove marker, knit to next marker, remove marker, cast off 25 sts, remove marker, knit to end. You should have removed all of the markers and be left with the live stitches for the two fronts and the back on the needle.

purl 1 row, pulling yarn firmly when you cross the gaps made by the sleeves.

work stocking stitch for 13 more rows ending with a knit row and the wrong side facing for the next row.

knit 4 rows

cast off knitwise on the wrong side.

Gently steam or block if needed. Sew on the button in your button tin that you always hesitate over. Know that this will be good enough for that favourite special button and that your elephant will treasure it forever and never grow out of it!