Olli Polli is a knitted baby elephant. I wanted to design a child’s toy that was almost completely seamless, but cute and appealing. My inspiration came from my oldest daughter as she was when she was 3 years old.

Toddlers have this wonderful way in which they stand, with little milk bellies out and proud and little feet planted wide. They are completely unselfconscious about their tummies and I tried to capture this in the design of this ellie.

Other than sewing the ears to the head and the head to the body, there is only one tiny 3 stitch seam, which is in a place that is invisible, so no ugly sewn together bits. The rest of her is knitted in one piece.
The challenge was to shape using short rows that are invisible, and via trial and error, I settled on shadow wrapped short rows, which worked perfectly for the shoes and trunk.

She is knit in DK weight yarn, using 2.75mm circular needles and stands around 24cm high.
She can be knitted in various sizes, depending on the size of the needles and weight of the yarn used.

To knit this little elephant, you will need to know how to do the following:

1. Basic knitting stitches, eg K, P, K2tog, P2tog, M1, Kfb, SSK, cast off…..

2. Judy’s Magic Cast On http://curiousknitter.blogspot.com/2011/02/judys-magic-ca... http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.com/2010/04/judys-magi... http://curiousknitter.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-i-do-judys... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhBIS0AhhQY

3. Magic Loop Knitting http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.com/2010/04/judys-magi...

4. Crocheting a chain on top of knitted fabric…see the photo tutorial at end of the pattern

5. Shadow wrapped short rows http://www.socktopus.co.uk/2011/02/short-rows-shadow-wraps/

6. Knitting back and forth on a Magic Loop

7. Backward loop Thumb Cast On

8. Picot Cast On with a twist http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.com/2011/02/pretty-pic...

9. Whatever appeals to you in terms of embellishments and decoration for Olli. I have chosen to do basic embroidery and some embroidered flowers and running stitch, but you can choose whatever you like. There are many tutorials on the Web that will demonstrate these techniques and I won’t specifically focus on showing them.

10. Basic sewing skills…you will be sewing the head and ears on, using spare yarn and a tapestry needle.

:: Requirements ::

Yarn: Colourspun Hand-dyed DK weight Yarn
(100% merino) 210m / 100g
Colors: Medium Gray approximately 70 - 100g (you may use less)
Red (or other color for her shoes and dress) 50g (you may use less)
White (or other color for her shoes and dress) 50g (ditto)
Oddments of other DK yarn in colors of your choice for embroidering the flowers on her shoes etc

Oddments of DK yarn to be used as waste yarn

You can substitute for this yarn…try to use a yarn that has a similar yardage to a 100g Colourspun skein. You can choose any colors that you like 

Circular Knitting Needles: You need two sets of circular needles Size 2.75mm

Scissors Tapestry Needle
Polyester Stuffing
Embroidery thread or small amount of black yarn for eyes
Pair of wire looped glass eyes (optional)
Crochet Hook 3.00mm
Small buttons x 2 (optional)

I have included step by step instructions and have added many explanatory diagrams and three photo tutorials at the end of the pattern…this way you can see how things are done but can choose to omit these pages when printing the pattern.

Happy knitting :)