This is made flat, which means seaming, seaming, seaming! It took an hour and a half just to do all the sewing. I’m still not sure I sewed the body correctly, but I couldn’t figure out how else to sew it.

Most knitting patterns I do have you place markers on the needles, but for this pattern you need to place markers on the stitch itself. I don’t have locking stitch markers, so i used paper clips.

The most difficult part of the project was picking up the stitches for the ears. The markers are on two different pieces of the elephant, and at first I couldn’t wrap my head around how to pick up the stitches. Eventually I did it by picking up 12 stitches along the row that marker 1 was in, then 1 stitch in each of the four ridges on the way to marker 2. This seems to have worked, so maybe this was correct?

There is a marker that is placed on the head that gets no later reference, so I’m not sure what that is about. Also in the sewing instructions, it mentions tusks but nothing in the pattern was marked tusks, nor does anything look like a tusk, so I don’t know what that is about, either.

I really like how the head came out, and I have to give kudos to the designer for being clever enough to work it out. I’m less pleased with the body/legs. I think I would have preferred them worked in the round.

Soundtrack - Total time: 7:08

0:40 Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite
0:41 Calming Playlist
0:38 Final Fantasy XI Piano Collections
0:41 Final Fantasy XI Piano Collections Vol. 2
1:10 Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart
1:17 Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess
1:10 Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin
Final Fantasy XI Vana’Con 11.11.11