The Planner and The Procrastinator: Sweet Elephant Amigurumi Intro.

Ok so I know I said Monday (Thanks Kim for calling me on it! love ya!). Gosh I'm such a bad blogger...but sometimes we have to prioritize. We had a crazy week this week. I was feeling less than stellar, not sick just not great. Really tired and CRAZY allergies! The babes have been testing me too...so when I would normally blog, I was disciplining, disciplining, and disciplining some more! Trying to assert my Mommyness. By the end of the day I was so drained I didn't even open the computer. All the while trying to soak up as much time as possible with my dear neighbor before she moves away :(

Anyway I took the pictures LAST SUNDAY! Thought I'd edit them that night but alas I fell asleep before editing a thing.... So I finally got around to editing them and here they are! Honestly I probably wont be back until Monday again... I will keep shooting and editing and doing behind the scenes stuff. But I wouldn't expect much until Monday again. And this time I mean it! Promise!!

Today we will start with the body of the elephant and work our way into the trunk. We will add eyes and be working increases and decreases. Nothing new if you followed the first crochet with me series. All links can be found here if you want to check it out again or for the first time! If you are new to the series and have never crocheted I recommend reading the first two posts in the series. Simply follow the link above.

First and foremost go here to the lion brand website and either bookmark or print out your pattern. I am going to change it slightly only in the beginning though and it will make it a tad easier. Remember in this post when I talked about the amazing magic ring?! Well apparently lion brand didn't get the memo when writing their pattern.

Because of copyright infringement I can't copy the pattern and put it up on my page. So I'll just show you things when they are different. Be sure to have the pattern up and ready or printed out so you can refer to it. This little elephant is SUPER easy I'm sure you guys will breeze through it. In fact I think the slippers were a touch more difficult.

When working amigurumi you want to work your stitches as tightly as possible. To the point where it is almost a bit difficult to get your hook into the stitch. You don't want the stuffing coming out or showing through the stitches. Because of this you will almost always use single crochet. They are the smallest and tightest stitch.

So at the beginning of the body where it says chain 2...don't. We will start with a magic ring. The first round says work 6 single crochet into the second chain from hook. Well we are just going to work 6 single crochet into the magic ring.

These are the couple extra things you need for your elephant. The black little screw kind of things are craft eyes, the white is to secure the eyes, and the little green safety pin thing is a stitch marker. To keep track of your rounds.

The next round says "2 sc in each stitch around" Basically work 2 stitches into each stitch opening all the way around. You will be doubling your stitches so you should end up with 12 stitches. Be sure to count your stitches after each round before starting a new one to make sure they are correct. If not you may be pulling your hair out later!

The next round says "*2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc; rep from * around - 18 sc." The star means to repeat from that point. So in your first stitch (where your stitch marker is) you work 2 single crochet. In the next stitch you work 1 single crochet. Then repeat from star, 2 single crochet in the next and 1 single crochet in the following stitch.

Follow the pattern increasing stitches as it indicates, this is what it looks like after 7 rounds. After all the increasing is finished.

After the increasing you will work 10 rounds even. So one stitch in every stitch.

The next stitch you will see is sc2tog (as it is referred to in the pattern). Basically it means single crochet 2 together. We will now be decreasing to create the ball of the body.

Starting round 18 the pattern says "*Sc2tog, sc in next 5 sc; rep from * around - 36 sc."

Then work a single crochet into the next 5 stitches, and do this sc2tog stitch again. Until you are back to the beginning where you stitch marker is.

At round 20 will need to start stuffing your sweet little elephant.

Put your craft eyes directly into the stitches on round 20. I put mine about 12 stitches apart but this is totally up to you how far apart or close together you would like your little elephant's eyes.