The Epic tale of Elijah the Elephant

Well I started off with some free Rowan Denim Yarn
- my Rowan International free gift (I didn't really fancy the free bag pattern).


This yarn shrinks and the colour bleeds when you wash it, so I decided to pre-shrink it before knitting with it.

So I used my niddy noddy to wind the balls into skeins tied each several times and put a three into a pillowcase sealed that and washed them at 40degrees on a normal wash. I thought I had been pretty careful, but I got a bit of a shock when my yarn went from this:

to this:

But in fact it wasn't as bad as it looked - the skeins were all still intact and could have been wound from a swift with some care. However I do not have a swift, so I then had to wind each ball by hand with the skein around my knees.

The blue bits on the floor are 'fluff' that has come off the yarn - it went EVERYWHERE. I had to hoover about 10 times to get rid of it.

I ended up with some hand wound balls:

Which I then wound into centre pull cakes on my ball winder:

THEN I started knitting! I loved this pattern and will probably knit it again - but not in a denim/cotton yarn. The tight gauge to stop the stuffing falling out / small needles / fiddly picking up stitches absolutely killed my fingers - I think it looks great knitted up though.


I am very pleased with him, my fingers have just about recovered and I think he looks pretty happy too!

Bernard's Hat

Despite the fact that I have decided that I am not going to stress myself out by knitting presents for other people this year, I have knitted my Grandad (Bernard) a hat.

My Grandad is definitely knit-worthy, I am not quite sure why I haven't knitted things for him in the past. I think it could be because he was living with a knitter and I didn't think he would need any scarves etc which was about all I could knit then.

Anyway - I knitted my Grandad a cowl a few weeks ago when he was ill. He loves it - he wore it everyday when my Mum stayed with him. Mum then told me how he needed a new hat as they had to throw away his old knitted hats (I think they had got to the point of falling apart).

So I have designed a hat for my Grandad - it is quite manly, but also fun (this is for the man who taught me to roller skate and dance, despite the fact that he was 70 when I was born!). I hope he likes it - and I have written the pattern down just in case you fancy a quick and easy bulky knit hat as well.


Bernard's Hat



Size 10mm dpns
Super Bulky Yarn - I used LANG Merino 50 Superwash (colours 4480 and 4488) - 90m/100g
Edited to add- I used less than 1/2 of each ball

Cast on 48 stitches in MC (I used cable cast on for a stretchy hem)
Join in the round being careful not to twist - place marker to indicate beginning of round

Row 1 MC- Knit
Row 2 MC- Knit
Row 3 MC- Purl
Row 4 MC- Purl

Change to CC (*)

Row 5 CC -Knit
Row 6 CC- Knit
Row 7 CC - Purl
Row 8 CC - Purl

*I carried the other colour by twisting the colours at the beginning of each round, but you could cut the colour at the end of each set of 4 rounds if you wish

Repeat these 8 rows twice more (Rows 9 - 24 so you have 3 stripes of each colour).

This is a close up of the decreases (it's quite difficult to take a photo of the top of your own head)

Row 25 MC - Knit
Row 26 MC - K4, K2tog - repeat across round (40sts remaining)

Row 27 CC - Knit
Row 28 CC - K3, K2tog - repeat across round (32sts remaining)

Row 29 MC - Knit
Row 30 MC - K2, K2tog - repeat across round (24sts remaining)

Row 31 CC - Knit
Row 32 CC - K1, K2tog - repeat across round (16sts remaining)

Row 33 MC - Knit
Row 34 CC - K2tog - repeat across round (8sts remaining)

Cut yarn and pull through remaining 8 sts.

Again- difficult to take photo's of yourself - honestly I am happy with this hat and I hope I normally don't look this scary!



Please contact me if you find any mistake with this pattern- as it has only been knit by me (so far). Please only knit this pattern for personal use - do not sell the pattern or items knit from it without contacting me.

Many thanks.