Knitting Project - Balloon Animal Elephant

So, after successfully making my wonderful Hooter Hat, I decided to make an elephant that I had found on the Lion brand website.  Here's the stock photo from the site:

Source

I followed the pattern exactly (which can be found here - but you need to register with the website before it will let you see the pattern), but mine turned out a little different.  The most obnoxious part for me was actually stitching up the tube since the project is knit flat then stitched up and stuffed.

Here's what it looked like before making it into an actual elephant:

Personal Photo

Totally awkward, right?

Now, assembling the whole thing was a little more difficult than I would have liked.  The pattern said gauge didn't matter, but I think it was lying.  Because it just felt like my tube was too thick to follow the instructions properly.  Either way, I'm actually really happy with how it turned out, it was just kinda of a pain in the ass getting there.  Here he is:

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From the top it kinda looks like a penis, hehehe - I'm such a child...

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I haven't added eyes yet, and I'm not sure I will.  The pattern says to sew on plastic eyes, and I'm just not comfortable having little, hand sewn, plastic pieces just asking to be ripped off and choked on by my son.  I've considered embroidering eyes on, but I kinda like it without eyes - balloon animals don't have eyes, after all.

Up next on the knitting front is a matching hat and bootie set for the little guy.  I haven't decided on which pattern to use for the booties and I'm using the same pattern I used for the base of the Hooter Hat only with a different brim.  I also have the best yarn for this project.  It's the prettiest gradient blue and it's super soft (it's 65% wool, 20% nylon, and 15% silk):

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And after that I think I'll be making some more balloon animals; they have 5 free balloon animal patterns on the Lion Brand website and they're all freaking adorable!

Until next time...