Elf is an 11 cm elephant who is quietly sad, and who carries a heart-shaped balloon on his trunk. The pattern is built the unusual way round: you crochet the trunk and face first, from the tip of the trunk upwards, then the four legs, then the belly, and the belly is joined to the legs in one long round of 96 stitches. The body and head grow out of that ring, and round 12 splits it into two openings — one for the head, one for the back.
That last move is the heart of the pattern. If you lose track at round 12, the elephant ends up with one hole instead of two and you cannot close the back correctly. Read rounds 8 to 12 twice before you start.
Every round is written out below.
What you need
- Yarn: sport weight cotton — grey for the body (Alize Cotton Gold), a second colour for the inner ears and tusks, pink for the balloon
- Hooks: 2 mm for the elephant, 1.5 mm for the cheeks
- Eyes: 10 mm safety eyes
- Notions: fibre fill, white felt, mouliné thread in black, white and pink, a 2–3 cm counterweight for the base, optional 1.2 mm floral wire and electrical tape for the trunk
Abbreviations
sc single crochet, dc double crochet, slst slip stitch, inc increase, dec decrease, P picot, (…l) total loops in the round.
Trunk and face
Yarn A. Worked from the tip of the trunk upwards.
- R1: 6 sc in the ring (6)
- R2–6: 6 sc — 5 rounds
- R7: (2 sc, inc) x2 (8)
- R8–10: 8 sc — 3 rounds
- R11: (3 sc, inc) x2 (10)
- R12: 10 sc (10)
- R13: (4 sc, inc) x2 (12)
- R14: 12 sc (12)
- R15: (5 sc, inc) x2 (14)
- R16: (6 sc, inc) x2 (16)
- R17: (7 sc, inc) x2 (18)
- R18: 3 sc, (sc, inc) x6, 3 sc (24)
- R19: 3 sc, (2 sc, inc) x6, 3 sc (30)
- R20: 3 sc, (3 sc, inc) x6, 3 sc (36)
- R21: (5 sc, inc) x6 (42) — stuff the trunk and fasten off
If you want the trunk to bend, insert a piece of floral wire 2–3 cm longer than the trunk before the widening starts, loop one end and tape the other into a ring, and fix it at two points inside the trunk as the rounds grow.
Legs (4)
- R1: 8 sc in the ring (8)
- R2: (sc, 3 sc in the next loop) x4 (16)
- R3: 2 sc, inc, (3 sc, inc) x3, sc (20)
- R4: 20 sc in the back loops only (20)
- R5: dec x2, 4 sc, inc x4, 4 sc, dec x2 (20)
- R6–9: 20 sc — 4 rounds
Leave the pins in place: they mark where the legs meet the belly.
Belly
- R1: 4 ch, 3 sc from the second chain (3)
- R2–3: ch 1, turn, 3 sc (3)
- R4: around the perimeter from the start point: 3 sc in the corner, 1 sc down the side, 3 sc in the corner, 3 sc across, 3 sc in the corner, 1 sc up the side, 3 sc in the corner, 3 sc across (20)
- R5: 1 sc, join leg 1 with 1 sc and work 19 sc around it; 3 sc down; join leg 2 with 1 sc and 19 sc around; 5 sc across; join leg 3 and 19 sc around; 3 sc up; join leg 4 and 19 sc around; 4 sc across (96)
Do not cut the yarn. Sew the holes under the thighs with a separate thread, then carry on into the body.
Body and head
- R1–7: 96 sc — 7 rounds
- R8: 45 sc along the body, 6 sc of the face joined to 6 sc of the body, 45 sc (96)
- R9: (13 sc, dec) x3, (5 sc, inc) x6, (13 sc, dec) x3 (126)
- R10: (12 sc, dec) x3, (2 sc, dec) x3, (2 sc, inc) x6, (2 sc, dec) x3, (12 sc, dec) x3 (120)
- R11: (11 sc, dec) x3, 42 sc, (11 sc, dec) x3 (114)
- R12: 86 sc, 6 loops, sc into the marked loop (this sc becomes the new start)
You now have two openings: the head on the left, the back on the right. Continue in the head.
- R13: 60 sc (60)
- R14: (sc, dec) x2, 42 sc, (sc, dec) x4 (54)
- R15: dec x2, 42 sc, dec x4 (48)
- R16–17: 48 sc — 2 rounds
- R18: (6 sc, dec) x6 (42)
- R19: (5 sc, dec) x6 (36)
Fit the eyes between rounds 20 and 21 counted from the top of the trunk, about 14 stitches apart, and only press them home after the white and black mouliné lines are embroidered around them. Embroider the trunk stripes, the eyebrows and the lashes.
- R20: (4 sc, dec) x6 (30)
- R21: (3 sc, dec) x6 (24)
- R22: (2 sc, dec) x6 (18)
- R23: (sc, dec) x6 (12)
- R24: dec x6 (6)
Cut a felt circle slightly larger than the hole, push it in so the fibre fill does not catch the needle, then close.
Back
- R1: (9 sc, dec) x6 (60)
- R2: (8 sc, dec) x6 (54)
- R3: 54 sc (54)
- R4: (7 sc, dec) x6 (48) — fill the legs
- R5: (6 sc, dec) x6 (42)
- R6: (5 sc, dec) x6 (36)
- R7: (4 sc, dec) x6 (30)
Put the counterweight in the back opening here: without it the head outweighs the body and the elephant tips forward.
- R8: (3 sc, dec) x6 (24)
- R9: (2 sc, dec) x6 (18)
- R10: (sc, dec) x6 (12)
- R11: dec x6 (6)
Another felt disc, then close.
Ears (2)
Inner ear in yarn B, outer in yarn A, same pattern.
- R1: 9 ch, 8 sc from the second chain (8)
- R2: inc, 6 sc, inc (10)
- R3–5: 10 sc (10)
- R6: inc, 8 sc, inc (12)
- R7–9: 12 sc (12)
- R10: dec, 8 sc, dec (10)
- R11: 10 sc (10)
- R12: 8 sc, dec (9)
- R13: dec, 7 sc (8)
- R14: 6 sc, dec (7)
- R15: dec, 5 sc (6)
- R16: 2 dc, 2 sc, dec (5)
Fold inner and outer together and crochet round the edge, hook through the outer first and then the inner so the join turns to the front.
- Right ear R17: 15 sc up, 8 sc straight, 15 sc down, 5 sc straight (43)
- Right ear R18: 3 slst, (small picot) x2, (big picot) x3
- Left ear R17: 5 sc straight, 15 sc up, 8 sc straight, 15 sc down (43)
- Left ear R18: ch 1, turn, 3 slst, (small picot) x2, (big picot) x3
Small picot: 3 ch, dc in the first chain, skip 1 sc, slst in the next. Big picot: 5 ch, dc in the first chain, skip 2 sc, slst in the next.
Details
- Cheeks (2): 1.5 mm hook, 6 sc in the ring, slst. Sew them wrong side out.
- Tusks (2): a two-strand cord of 6 loops, worked by looping the standing end over the hook.
- Forelock: five 1 cm loose stitches at the top of the head, cut through and trimmed into a triangle.
- Tail: 10 ch, then five 1 cm loops at the end, cut and fluffed into a brush. Sew it on, then squeeze the head to the body with a few stitches.
- Toes: three French knots on each leg.
The heart balloon
The balloon is a heart, worked as two identical lobes joined in the middle.
- R1: 6 sc in the ring (6)
- R2: inc x6 (12)
- R3: (sc, inc) x6 (18)
- R4: 18 sc (18)
- R5: (2 sc, inc) x6 (24)
- R6: 24 sc (24)
Make the second lobe the same way and do not cut the yarn. Join them: 6 sc of the first lobe together with 6 sc of the second, then 18 sc around the second (R7, an incomplete round), then 18 sc on the first and 18 on the second (R8, 36 stitches). From there the heart is worked in rounds and closed at the point. The rope is the same floral wire, wrapped and taped, fixed inside the trunk.
Notes
The wired trunk is not a toy for a baby: the pattern says so explicitly, and it is right — a 1.2 mm wire inside a soft cotton trunk will eventually work its way out. For a child, crochet the trunk plain and sew the balloon to the raised tip instead.
More small animals: Layla the Llama is the plush one, 2 in 1 Frog is the 7 cm one, and Baby Alien is the 10 cm figure. Everything is on the patterns page.
Pattern source: Elephant Elf, crochet PDF pattern.
For a set with a building in it, Amanita Mushroom House is a 27 cm mushroom with a doll inside the door.
