Handmade Baby Elephants from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts & Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts!
Elephants are wonderful creatures. They are intelligent, have great memories, and live in fascinating structured social groups. Perhaps because they are such symbols of peace and wisdom they have often been the subject of children’s literature. We can’t think of any other animal that has as spawned as many memorable characters as the mighty elephant. There’s Dumbo, Ella, Horton, Elmer and of course, Babar just to name a few.
Happily, we at Purl Soho are experiencing a mini-baby boom, so we wanted to make some baby gifts for the new arrivals that would be soft, cuddly and spark their imaginations. These two handmade elephants, one knitted and one sewn, will make great companions for the little ones! Both elephant patterns come from books written by our very own Joelle Hoverson and both are quick and easy to make!
Peanut the Wee Elephant is a much beloved pattern from Joelle’s book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts and was designed by the very talented Hilary Lang. Hilary is the creative force behind the adorable Wee Wonderfuls blog and online store. For our elephant above we used a fun print from Liberty of London Tana Lawn called Pastel Over the Rainbow and also embroidered some eyelashes on her. Molly named her Sunshine the Groovy Pachyderm and we think she’s the perfect gift for a baby girl.
This knitted elephant is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts which is also written by Joelle and it only takes 4-6 hours to make. This is the kind of stuffed animal that a child will drag with them everywhere because it’s so soft and cuddly and has such a sweet personality knit right in. For this elephant we used Jade Sapphires 8-ply 100% cashmere in color Creme de Menthe, which we think will be perfect for a new baby boy!
If you’d like to make your own stuffed elephants please check out Joelle’s great books, Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. They have wonderful, quick gift ideas for everyone from new babies to us older folks!
peanut is soooo cute!!
i’d get one for my 22 year old self! haha.
Hooray for Purl babies!!
too sweet!
Oh my! sooo sweet! I *heart* elephants!
http://diamondsandtulle.blogspot.com
These are SO great! I love them!!
He is adorable! I love your fabric, very carebears. I made one last weekend, take a look http://bosh.me/y1mL3y
I love that elephant!! I have made four of them over the past few years, all for friends’ new babies! I will have to post more pictures, most recently I made one who was wearing a green polka dot tie. Thanks for all these great projects!!
http://alipremo.wordpress.com/2009/07/
Very cute!
i love these ellibumps! i’ve made Peanut a few times, and he comes out so lovable each time. but, my mother-who is an incredible cable knitter-really struggled with the knit elephant and ended up giving up! any tips, anyone??
I know a certain baby about to be born in Seattle, (her Mother is a Purl baby from way back.) These elephants will make her very happy. Great ideas for our blizzard imposed vacation.
i think that seattle baby would LOVE these elephants 🙂
These are too cute! I especially love the elephant from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, gonna check out the blog now and get to work
… amazing, they would be perfect for my first cousin
Must. make. elephant. Soo adorable! I’ve been wanting Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for a long time…now I’ve really got to get it!
Aw these are so sweet! Love them both! I love elephants too and have made a few really tiny ones! xx
Great Post…..I found your site on stumbleupon and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
I loved the eyelashes so much on your Peanut that I put them on mine. I loved this pattern, it’s so cute.
Awesome article to read and Great tips.I Love it….Thank you so much…
Nice article and Great tips…Thank you..I Love it…
Is there a place to find or buy the peanut Wee elephant pattern? I bought a used copy of the Last minute gifts book but the patterns are missing 🙁
Thanks for your help!
Mary Beth
Hello Mary Beth,
Thank you for reaching out – I’m so sorry to hear that the pattern is missing! Unfortunately we do not have access individual pdfs of the patterns in this book. I’m so sorry I can’t be more helpful! You could check and see if your local library has a copy!
Good luck and happy knitting!
-Marilla