Soft, cuddly, elephant-ness

If you've been reading my blog, you may have noticed that I love elephants.  I've already done a couple of cards that feature them.  When I found this crochet pattern a few weeks ago, I just knew I had to give it a whirl!

This little guy took me about a week.  I don't typically mind crocheting in the round, but this pattern uses a continuous round or a spiral, instead of separate round rows.  When I do this again, I think I'll make the rows separate.  It's easier for me to follow and will make it easier to attach the legs at the end.  I had to reattach the left leg twice because I just couldn't get it lined up with the right, even though I was in the "same" row.  I may also try going up a hook size or two.  Because of the stuffing, I had to keep the stitches really tight, which got to be kind of tortuous on my hands after awhile.  And the tight stitches combined with rounds that were only 8 stitches to begin with on such a small hook made it almost impossible to hold! LOL  Overall though, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out and he's got a little place of honor sitting on my Big Shot shelf.