So I recently got a custom order for a friend's baby shower gift. Babies, yay! Her theme is elephants after her Indian heritage (from India, not Native American, of course)! :)
I had the ingenious idea of creating an elephant square to go along with another square I had seen online. I also made a matching lovey blanket and earflap hat! I used bright colors inspired by Indian culture, but of course cutesy girly too.
It's so super cute, I just love how it turned out! What do you think? :D
I'm happy to report that I decided to post the elephant square for FREE! It's finally ready! You can find my elephant lovey pattern on ravelry now. :D
The flower square I found at Made in K-town. Her tutorial has lots of pictures and is super easy to follow. :)
My square uses my own elephant applique instead of the first two rounds of the flower square and then continues on with round 3 and so on. I made 10 of each design for a 4x5 squares baby blanket (4 squares across and 5 squares down)!
I joined my squares using this tutorial by Attic24. It's super easy, and as you can see, it lays really nicely! You might want to block the squares before you join them. They tend to lay much flatter in the end. I then finished the blanket off with a round of single crochets and a round of shell stitches. :)
But without further ado, here is the elephant square free pattern.
Elephant Crochet Square
What you need:
• Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Loops and Thread: Impeccable from Michaels)
• H crochet hook
• D crochet hook
• tapestry needle
• hot glue gun
(I know, not the best thing to use on a blanket but I had no other way of adding the eyes without it showing)*TIP: join at the end of every round to the first crochet made, not the beginning chains.
Elephant
With grey yarn (or elephant color of your choice) and H hook.
Rnd 1: make a magic loop, ch 2 and dc 12 into loop, join (12 sts)
Rnd 2: ch 2, 2 dc in same st as chains, 2 dc in each st around, join (24 sts)
Do not fasten off.
Trunk: ch 7, 3 sc in second ch from hook, sc in next 5 chains, slst to the next st on head, slst in each st around the head and around the trunk (this will help give the end of the trunk its rounded shape) FO
Create an invisible join (video) and sew end in under stitches of the trunk.
Ears (make 2)
Rnd 1: make a magic loop and dc 8 into the loop, turn
Rnd 2: ch 1, 2 HDC into the first st, 2 dc in next 6 sts, 2 HDC in last st, leave about a 12 inch tail for sewing when you FO (16 sts)
Sew the ears to the sides of the head you just created making sure to only stitch them to the front loops, then sew in ends. You will need the back loops to crochet the rest of the square into.
 |
| sewing in just the loops on the front side of the face |
With black yarn and D hook.
Rnd 1: make a magic loop and sc 6 into loops, join, FO and sew in ends.
With white yarn, embroider a little stitch through the eyes so that there is a little line of white showing on the front. There wasn't much room to sew in ends so I hot glued the little ends down on the back side making sure to make it really flat.
Since there really wasn't a way to sew the eyes on the work without it showing in some way, I hot glued the eyes onto the head as shown in the photo above. Only put a thin layer of glue on the back so that it doesn't seep out the sides and won't be visible. Also make sure that the glue doesn't come out the back of your work.
Now you should have a complete elephant and you will start with round 3 from the pattern from Made in K-town and crochet it onto the elephant, which I will outline below! :)
Square Rounds
with an H hook
As you can see here, this is the back side of the head, and you are going to crochet into loops along the side of the head, but then just the back loops behind the ears.
Rnd 3 (from square): sk first st, join color to next st and ch 3, (dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in same st, sk 2 sts, (2dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 2 sts, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 1 st, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 3 sts, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 1 st, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 2 sts, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, sk 2 sts, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in next st, join to beginning ch 3, slst in next st and in ch 2 space
*TIP: When working in stitches behind the ears, work your first dc in the back loop and then for the next pick up a loop from the bottom of the stitch. for more stability. Continue to crochet in both loops for the remainder of the cluster in that stitch.
Rnd 4 (from square): ch 3, work 6 dc in same ch 2 space, work 7 dc in each ch 2 space around, slst join to the first ch 3 (8- 7 dc clusters made)
FO if you are working a new color next as the pattern shows.
Rnd 5 (from square): join color to the ch 3 st, work a sc in the top of the ch 3 and in each of the next 6 dc, sc spike down between the dc of the round joined to the head, continue to sc in each dc and a sc spike between each of the clusters. (see photo above or the photos of the pattern linked for details)
FO for new color.
Rnd 6 (from square): join new color right where you fastened off in the top of the last sc spike, ch 1 and hdc in same st, * sc in next 4 sts, hdc, dc in next 2 sts, (2 trc, ch 3, 2 trc) in next st, dc in next 2 sts, hdc in next st, sc in next 4 sts, hdc, repeat from the * until the end, join to the first hdc.
(I know the original pattern says (1 trc, ch 3, 1 trc) for the corners, but I liked it better as 2 trc and that's what I did on my squares. Feel free to do whichever way you like it best.)
Rnd 7 (from square): ch 2 and dc in same st, dc in each st around working (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in each corner space, join to the first dc and FO
So that's my elephant square and I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know if you have any questions! If you find any problems or typos with this pattern then please let me know and I will be sure to fix it. :)
TERMS :: You may sell whatever you make with my pattern, but please link back to my blog. Please DO NOT alter my pattern and repost it in any way, claiming it as your own.
Happy crocheting!
Chassity O.
