tiny happy

These are little elephants with big ears and I think they make lovely wee gifts for babies and toddlers.

I first made them when Keira was a little one- all the way back here!

And ever since then, I've had emails from readers asking if I'd share the pattern. It's obviously quite a simple one – but sometimes it's more fun to make a project that's all ready to go. So I hope you have fun with these and make lots for all the little children in your life.

*** for personal use only – thank you! ***

Materials:

Copy of the elephant template pattern. You'll also need a little more paper and a pencil.

Small amount of plain-coloured fabric. This should be soft, light-weight and tightly-woven. Good choices include linen with a tight weave, cotton, or lightweight denim/chambray

Small amount of a contrast printed fabric for ears and tail – lightweight and soft cotton is the best choice

Sewing machine, pins needle, thread, scissors and embroidery thread

Stuffing – wool, cotton or polyester

Method:

**Click on any of the photos to enlarge them**

Print the template and cut out the pieces. You'll also need to make a pattern for the tail (I forgot to include that in the pattern- oops!) so to do this, cut out a rectangle that measures 3" long and 2.5" wide. Then trim the rectangle so that it is slightly tapered towards one short end (as in photo below).

Cut out the elephant pieces: two body pieces (place fabric right sides together, pin and cut), 4 ear pieces and 2 tail pieces.

Using a 1/4" seam, sew around the curved edges of each ear pair, press then carefully clip the curved seam. Turn each ear right side out and press. Fold in the raw edges with a narrow fold (about 1/4"), and press again.

Take the 2 tail pieces and place right sides together. With a 1/4" seam, sew them together, leaving the untapered top edge unsewn. Press seam, clip corners, turn right-side out and press again.

Assemble the elephant. Open up the body pieces and lay both on a flat surface, right sides up. Transfer the eye marking from the template by making a mark with a pencil. Using dark embroidery thread, work some small stitches (I use about 3 very small sideways chain stitches, stacked on top of each other) for the eye, on both body pieces. 

Using the template markings as a guide, pin the ears to the body front, carefully lining up the folded raw edges. Sew along these edges to attach the ears to the elephant, reversing at the top and bottom of each ear.

Take the tail piece and pin to one of the body pieces as shown below:

Place the other body piece on top and pin all around. You will leave the top part unsewn for turning (as marked on the template):

Sew all around the edge with a 1/4" seam. I sew this seam twice to make sure the toy will be extra-sturdy.

A note about the trunk: when I reach the trunk, I pivot the needle just above the point where it joins the leg, then continue sewing. Later, I clip this seam very carefully, as shown below:

Press the seams then trim and carefully clip the curves and corners.

Turn right-side-out and use a pencil to push out any corners as necessary.

Stuff your elephant (it's best to use small tufts of stuffing at a time and begin by pushing these tufts into the elephant's feet and trunk with the pencil).

Neatly stitch up the gap at the top of the elephant, and admire your new elephant friend. 

Other ideas: 

If you're making these for a baby, you could add a bell or rattle along with the stuffing, or insert a piece of crinkly paper or plastic into the ear before attaching to the elephant.

Make five or six and hand-sew ribbons between them to create a sweet elephant garland, like I did below.

It's a stormy spring Saturday here – what better conditions for making cake and knitting by the fire? I'm working on some baby knits for friends' new arrivals and wishing I'd started work on them a bit earlier.

That's pretty much all I have to report today.

Except to say that the native clematis (puawhananga) is out and as beautiful as ever. I'm hoping the flowers don't get completely blown away just yet!

Also – tomorrow I will publish a free pattern for those little elephants in the picture above. I promised certain readers that I would do it a long time ago – and finally I've organised it. Hooray.

Happy weekend, and see you soon.

I'd never knitted a shawl before, and wanted to make something special with a skein of Dark Harbour yarn in the colourway 'Old Salt' Isn't that an evocative name? It features speckles of black sprinkled like salt on a grey base.

So above you can see my finished Spindrift shawl. I really enjoyed knitting it even though I made a few mistakes. The most obvious of these involves the continuous eyelet rows I worked at the bottom of the shawl, rather than the style given in the pattern. It was just the way I interpreted the instructions during a glass of wine and a couple of episodes of the BBC's War and Peace. Typical of my amateur knitting, but I like the finished shawl and I'm sure I'll wear it this spring.

I made a couple of other changes, as described here on Ravelry.

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+ This new magazine for young girls looks cool.

+ Have you heard this new song? 33 "GOD" by Bon Iver…

+ I love the feeling in these illustrations.

I hope you have had a relaxing weekend!

I love these simple little bags, and have been making them to keep my knitting projects safe and tangle-free. A small version is perfect for in-progress socks, but it's easy to up-size the pattern as I've described below.

Inspired by Japanese bento and furoshiki and sometimes known as azuma bukuro, these bags can function as the ultimate reusable gift-wrap. 

At first I made them from a single piece of linen, but then I decided a lining from Liberty lawn would be even better. 

Here's a tutorial so you can make one too. Of course you don't have to use linen or lawn, but I like the way the weights of these fabrics work together. Choose a light to medium-weight fabric for the bag outer, and a lightweight cotton for the lining.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

LINED BENTO BAG 

You will need:

:: linen fabric :: lightweight cotton for lining :: sewing machine :: scissors, needle and thread :: tape measure or ruler :: iron :: pins :: embroidery thread to match :: pinking shears (optional) ::

Preparing the fabric:

Cut two strips of fabric, one from the linen and one from cotton. The length of the strip needs to measure three times the width. For example, the strips could measure 10" X 30" (this would produce a large bag) or 9" X 27" (which produces my favourite size).

For the ease of photographing this tutorial, I've used strips measuring 7" X 21", which will make a small bag.

Construction:

Press the fabric strips and make sure they're exactly the same size. Place right sides together, pin and sew around the edge with a 1/4" seam, leaving a gap for turning near the right corner on one of the long edges.

Press seams and trim the corners carefully. Also trim any extra fabric from the seam allowance as it's best not to have any bulk. Turn right-side out and press the piece well, especially in the corners. Also press down the gap you left for turning.

Lay the piece out on a flat surface, linen (outer) side up, so that the long edge with the gap is along the top. Fold the strip into thirds, and finger press along where these points are. Then unfold the strip again (see below)

Take the third segment on the right of the strip, and fold it so that the corner matches up to the other fold (as in the photo below). Pin, making sure you'll enclose the gap when you sew. Sew across this part, reversing at either end. Try to sew as closely as you can to the edge.

Now flip the piece around so that the sewn edge is facing towards you, and fold the corner down to meet it, as in the picture below. 

Take the corner marked as * A * above, and  match it up to * B *, linen sides facing each other. Keep the diagonal fold of the way. Pin along this seam and sew close to the edge, reversing at either end:

Now it should look like this: (lining side out)

Finishing:

Press all the interior seams well so they sit as flat as possible. Next you can square off the corners if you like, by sewing across them like this:

Do this to both corners, and remember to reverse at either end of the seam. Because these are going to be raw edges inside the bag, you can either leave them as is or snip them off with pinking shears:

Turn inside out and press. You can also add some hand-stitching to reinforce the two points where the bag pieces intersect: (as you can see I quite like the wabi-sabi look)

And then you're ready to wrap something up! In mine I've got alpaca yarn and needles to make a wee baby hat – my job for this evening. Hope you enjoy the tutorial and have fun making one.

I seem to be all about knitting small things these days (okay, so not just these days but all days).

I made a hat from possum yarn in a beautiful fern-green colour that has been getting a lot of use already. It's the Rikke Hat pattern (free download on Ravelry) and it's a simple and quick knit in garter stitch.

You can make it quite slouchy or not and the best part of the design is the smaller-scale garter stitch band. I also learned the German twisted cast on for it, which is my new favourite method.

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Keira had been asking me to make her a cowl for ages ("something really soft to keep the wind off my neck") and I let her rummage through my yarn to choose something. She pulled out a half-finished project – a toddler's cardigan I was knitting for her but somehow lost interest in. Actually, I think I lost the pattern and it's been languishing at the bottom of a drawer ever since.

The yarn is Mirasol T'ika cotton (one label survived) and to make the cowl I cast on 108 stitches on a 4mm circular needle, knit 3 inches in rib, then 7" in stocking stitch, 3" in rib and cast off loosely.

…. just in case your 11 year old needs one too! …..

Thanks for your comments on my last post – I'm working on a photo tutorial for you and hope to have it published soon! (Probably next week).

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Last Saturday Keira and I spent the morning at home, and while I was working on this, she asked for a piece of linen and did her own embroidery. Much happier and brighter than mine. Keira is not often keen to sew or knit (her activity of choice is drawing in a sketchbook) but she says she was 'just in the mood' that day. I helped her make the work up into a pillow for her bed.

I was very happy to see her stitching free style, with no template or drawing underneath – that's what I've always done and I'm not sure that she even realises patterns are a thing. I'm not saying that transfers and patterns are a bad thing – they're wonderful and bring a lot of crafters joy. But I do think there's something liberating about not using them at all and having the confidence to just see where your needle and thread can take you.

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Some late-night knitting sessions were required to finish another pair of slippers – these ones are for Tom. He kept borrowing (and horribly stretching) mine, so I had no choice but to make him a pair. 

These ones are much sturdier and warmer than previous pairs I've knitted. I used the same pattern, but slighter bigger needles and two strands of yarn held together – details of all that can be found here. 

I've photographed them with a few of Tom's things. One is the Bonnie Prince Billy album Ease down the road which we both love actually, and when the children were babies we pretty much had it playing constantly, so it is forever etched in my memory of that time.

Here is my favourite song from it: May it always be. I think the lyrics are beautiful.

I've always found the combination of linen and Liberty lawn to be pleasing. My latest project has been a set of simple linen bento bags – just like these from last month – except lined in Liberty cotton. The result is a slightly more substantial bag, but a rather aesthetically pleasing one which is perfect for keeping a medium-sized knitting project in order.

I've made a few for my etsy shop but I could also put together a tutorial on making these, if anyone is interested?

Speaking of knitting projects, in the last photo above you can see something I've been working on lately – it's a Spindrift Shawl (designed by Curious Handmade), knitted with beautiful yarn dyed by my friend Nikki. The shawl design is apparently good for beginner-shawl-knitters like me, and if you sign up for the accompanying email workshop series, you can download the pattern for free. (Ravelry link here).

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Did you hear Debbie Stoller talking to Kim Hill on RNZ this morning about feminism and knitting, among other interesting things? You can listen to the recording here.

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I haven't got much to say today, but I do have these photos…

a) Botanical business

b) A bit of embroidery-in-progress

c) Chocolate-chip cookies made for an afternoon of visitors. The recipe is this trusty favourite.

I hope you're having a good week!

It's been about as wintry as it gets in these parts, so that's meant more knitting by the fire, more reading, more cosy times. Not such a bad thing really.

It seems that everyone needs a pair of slippers now, so that's been taking up a lot of my knitting time. The lightweight shawl, cardigan and socks on the needles have been put aside in favour of tweedy thick wool.

I have been making a few baby gifts (so many new babies in my circle of friends and family!) including reversible shoes in their own little drawstring pouch, for safekeeping when they no longer fit.

Other beautiful wintry things include long conversations and drinking red wine with friends, springs of daphne on the kitchen table, hearty soups (kumara and coconut milk being my current favourite) and a bit of late-night viewing: Tom and I are completely sucked into the Australian television series The Kettering Incident.

Hope this finds you well, dear reader.

Hello! I hope you're having a good weekend and the sun is shining where you are. 

We've had a beautiful weekend but in typical Wellington style it's included rain, hail, sunshine, storms and a bitterly cold wind. Plus a dusting of snow on the mountains in the distance.

Thanks again for your messages on this post. I want to write back to every one individually!

I drew some winners randomly for the three parcels, and they were Susie D, Tonia and Fiona B. Thank you again, XX

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Some music I am really enjoying at the moment is Day of the Dead, an album put together by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. It features Grateful Dead songs covered by a huge number of interesting musicians – there's at least 5 hours' worth of music to explore (this particular track is a favourite of mine)

The photos above are altogether unrelated to this post, but I felt like uploading them: at the top is a recent embroidery I worked and at the bottom is an outtake from the photos I took for this project, and stars Keira's dress-up silk cape and hands back when they were smaller. Complete with chipped nail polish, even.