As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a baby on the way, so I’ve been knitting up some cute little toys.  I searched pinterest for ideas and found a couple hand-knit toys that I couldn’t resist.

One of my first pregnancy dreams was about a baby elephant, and the baby elephant represented my baby.  I just loved that little baby elephant in the dream, and I didn’t want to stop hugging it and holding it.  Well, ever since then, I’ve been mildly obsessed with elephants, so when I saw a pattern for a baby elephant, I knew I’d have to knit it.

The link that I saw on pinterest was actually of a mother and baby elephant.  Here’s the link to the Ravelry account where the pictures for the hand-knit elephants were posted: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mariflori/oliphaunt  You’ll need a Ravelry account (which is free) in order to view it.  The name of the project is “Mother and Son Elephant” which is perfect, because I’m having a boy.  🙂

This ravelry page linked to the pattern page, which you can find here: http://philacraft.blogspot.com/2006/10/oliphaunt.html

I used this pattern exactly as directed to make a baby elephant.  I whipped that baby up in one evening while watching TV.  Then, as the Ravelry knitter described, I doubled the rows and stitches to make a bigger mother elephant.

When my husband saw the cute mother and baby elephants, he wanted me to make an even bigger father elephant to represent him.  To make the dad, I tripled the rows and stitches in the original pattern.  The only issue with this bigger elephant was that the trunk looked too fat.  I had already sewn up the elephant by the time I noticed this, so instead of having a nightmare of a time undoing stitches, I sewed the trunk up, which my husband thought was super cute.  (I’m sure he used different words than “super cute,” but I’m paraphrasing.)

There you have it, a family of elephants, father, mother and baby boy.

This would make a great gift for a child of any age who likes elephants, or you could make one or all three elephants for a thoughtful gift for a baby shower.

Now, that’s some Pretty Creative Stuff!