Deramores Eddie the Elephant Toy Knitting Pattern

Deramores Eddie the Elephant Knitted Toy

What is Being Made

Eddie the Elephant is a beginner-friendly knitted stuffed toy designed by Amanda Berry. The finished toy stands 24cm (9½ inches) tall and features a classic elephant design with distinctive ears, trunk, and tusks. This is a complete toy project suitable for knitters new to amigurumi-style toy construction, though the finished item is not recommended for children under 3 years due to small parts including button eyes and potential choking hazards.

Techniques Used

This knitting project employs fundamental techniques appropriate for beginner knitters. The pattern uses stocking stitch (knit on right-side rows, purl on wrong-side rows) as the primary fabric construction method. Shaping is achieved through basic increase and decrease techniques, allowing the knitter to form three-dimensional toy components. The pattern involves knitting multiple pieces separately and then seaming them together using a yarn needle, a standard approach in toy construction. Assembly includes stuffing individual components before final closure and attaching embellishments such as button eyes and felt details.

Stitches Used

Eddie the Elephant uses essential knitting stitches that form the foundation of beginner knitting:

• Knit (K): The basic stitch forming the right-side fabric in stocking stitch
• Purl (P): The complementary stitch used on wrong-side rows to create stocking stitch texture
• Knit front and back (Kfb): An increase stitch that creates one additional stitch by working into both the front and back loops of a single stitch
• Knit two together (K2tog): A right-leaning decrease that combines two stitches into one
• Slip, slip, knit (Ssk): A left-leaning decrease achieved by slipping two stitches individually and knitting them together through the back loop

Materials and Tools

The project requires Deramores Studio DK yarn in three colorways: Smoke (Yarn A), Mist (Yarn B), and Frost (Yarn C). The pattern calls for 1 x 100g ball each of Smoke and Mist, with only a small amount of Frost needed for the tusks, making this an economical project for yarn usage.

Construction requires 3.5mm (UK 10-9 / US 4) knitting needles. The pattern specifies this needle size deliberately to achieve a tension of 22 stitches and 32 rows over 10cm (4 inches) in stocking stitch. This needle size is notably smaller than the standard recommendation on the yarn ball band, intentionally creating a firmer, denser fabric that holds its shape effectively and prevents toy stuffing from showing through the knitted surface.

Additional materials include toy filling for stuffing, white felt fabric for details, two 6mm (¼ inch) black buttons for eyes, a sewing needle and thread for attaching embellishments, a yarn needle for seaming and finishing, and scissors for trimming yarn ends.

Pattern Structure

The pattern is organized by component, with instructions for creating individual pieces such as the ears (made in pairs using identical instructions). The design uses long-tail cast on as the foundation method unless otherwise specified in individual sections. Square brackets throughout the pattern indicate sections to be repeated, a standard notation system that helps knitters identify which instructions should be worked multiple times to complete each component.

This downloadable PDF pattern from Deramores provides a complete beginner knitting project that combines basic stitch work with toy assembly techniques, making it an ideal introduction to knitted toy creation.