Elefanté – A Gift For Fico

One of my favourite people in the world is my best friend Sophie’s son Fico. He is handsome, cute, clever and gives the best snuggles.  It was recently his first birthday (where does the time go?!) so I wanted to make him something special. Fico loves elephants so of course the choice was obvious, plus I had recently been given a copy of Knitted Wild Animals by Sarah Keen. I had already made the monkey from the book and was itching to make the elephant!

Fico at 5 months, with his beautiful Mama

I have to say that whilst the animals from the book turn out absolutely beautifully, they do take a lot of work! Each bit is knitted flat then stitched together, as you can see from the gallery below. I got pretty impatient about halfway through but I am so glad I persevered. Luckily, I started this with 4 months to finish it – didn’t think I’d need it but it was nice to be able to put it down and pick it up to break it up a bit!

Step 1: Gather all pieces

Step 2: Make body

Step 3: Attach legs

Step 4: Create head with bumpy trunk!

Step 5: Sew on head

Step 6: Add ears – only eyes and tusks left!

Sewing this bad boy together was actually a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun! It was really exciting to see all the pieces come together and for Elefanté to start getting a personality and character. I had such a sense of achievement and pride when he was finally finished – Fico is lucky I adore him so much, as I didn’t want to give this beast away!

Seeing Fico’s little face when I gave him his birthday gift was worth all of the effort and time, and then some. It’s always nice to see something you have spent time hand making to be appreciated, especially when the recipient is a  one year old, so doesn’t exactly understand being grateful even when you think something is gross! His little smile was genuine and melted my heart ❤ And just as I got to finishing this blog post, Fico’s equally beautiful Mama sent me some pictures of Elefanté being cuddled – aw!