I caved and finally bought myself a swift. It should be here next week, and I am excited to put it to use! I’ve got 4 skeins of Eco Wool waiting to be balled and sweaters to make, so this should be a nice little treat. For me, and for Paul (I always make him hold the yarn while I ball it!)

Hooray for Amazon!

Another special request for an animal, this time it was for a tiny pink elephant!

I’m not too sure about the legs though. They may need to be a bit bigger.

But the bunch looks happy together.

Pattern below, if anyone wants it:

Body:
Cast on 6 on DPN’s
Knit 1 M1 til end of row
Knit row
Knit 1 M1 til end of row
Knit row
Knit 1 M1 til end of row
Knit rows (until body is as long as you want it)
Knit 4, K2G until end of row
Knit 3, K2G until end of row
Knit 2, K2G until end of row
Knit 1, K2G until end of row
K2G until end of row
Stuff the body
Take remaining thread and pull it through the stitches still on needles, tighten.

Head:
Cast on 6 on DPN’s
Knit 1, M1 until end of row
Knit row
Knit 1 M1 until end of row
Knit rows until your head is about the size you want it.
Knit 4, K2G until end of row
Knit 3, K2G until end of row
Knit 2, K2G until end of row
You should have about 6 stitches on your needles, knit those on DPN’s until your trunk is as long as you want it. Bind off.

Legs/Arms: (Make 4)
Cast on 6 on DPN’s
Knit in the round until they are the length you want them, then take yarn and pull it through remaining stitches.

Ears:
Cast on 13 stitches
knit 14 rows
k2g, knit until last 2 stitches, k2g
knit row
k2g, knit until last 2 stitches, k2g
(continue until you have 4 stitches on the needle, bind off)

I had a special request for a turtle, but was unsuccessful in finding a good pattern for a turtle online, except for itty-bitty ones, and I didn’t really want to make one that small. So I made one up, and sometimes my made-up patterns actually work.

I am kind of sad that the turtle and the lamb have to leave us soon. I will most likely need to make replacements.

Pattern below if anyone wants it:

Shell:
cast on 6 stitches,
row one: knit
row two: knit one, make one
(repeat rows 1 and 2 three times)
knit 6 rows (alternating color every 2 rows)
knit 4, k2grep to end of row
knit to end of row
knit 3, k2g rep to end of row
knit to end of row
knit 2, k2g rep to end of row
knit to end of row
knit 1, k2g rep to end of row
knit to end of row
k2g rep until you have 6 stitches on your DPN’s
Stuff the shell, thread tail through last 6 stitches, pull through, tighten.

Head:
Cast on 6 stitches
Knit to end of row
K1, M1 to end of row
knit to end of row
K1, M1 to end of row
Knit 4 rows
Knit 4, ktg rep to end of row
Knit 3, ktg rep to end of row
Knit 2, ktg rep to end of row
Knit 1, ktg rep to end of row
Ktg rep until you have 6 stitches left, stuff the head, thread remaining yarn through last six stitches, pull tight.

Legs/tail:
Made 4 ‘flippers’ for legs (6 stitches for 6 rows, decrease 2, knit 3 more rows, decrease 1, knit one row, bind off) and one tail (knit 4 stitches for 3 rows, decrease two, knit for 2 rows, bind off) and sewed them all together. I tried to do everything on DPN’s because I hate seaming more than anything.

I am working on my 3rd sweater(3rd adult sweater), it’s a top-down raglan, based on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s basic pattern.

My book is a bit worn out, as you can tell.

But it gives you all the basic principles that you need to know to make a sweater, but it is more of a bare-bones pattern more than a step-by-step pattern. So you have to do a little math, but this website helps out a bit. You can enter your needle size and gauge, plus the size (In inches) you want it, and *presto* if pops out a much more direct pattern for you to follow! It’s pretty amazing, especially for those of us who are not so good with the math portion of figuring out your own patterns. But it’s pretty liberating, knowing the basic steps to be able to create a sweater of any size, without having to have all the trouble of figuring all that complicated math stuff.

I highly recommend E. Zimmerman to every knitter, once you get the basic steps of knitting down you can follow these steps and make a beautiful sweater!