Don't Look a Gift Elephant in the Mouth

Because it's kind of creepy:



But it turned out cute:



(That's the elephant from Last Minute Knitting Gifts, but knit on size 4 needles, so it turned out smaller--6 or 7 inches tall, not 10, or whatever the one in the book did.)

Last week was the week of last minute knitted gifts, certainly. One anticipated-but-procrastinated last minute, and one-came-up-at-the-last-minute last minute.

Niece E's first birthday party was Saturday, and although I've known about it for months (all year, technically!), I didn't start knitting anything for her till the beginning of the week (hey, the book said it would only take 6-8 hours, and there was that all night train ride to DC, in case I REALLY waited till the last minute!). I'd figured out what to make, and had the yarn, but was a good little knitter and worked on the new sweater for Schaefer instead. So that was the procrastinated project.

The really last minute project was a hat for one of my boat-mates, who moved at the end of last week. We'd planned a goodbye party for Wednesday, and on Tuesday morning we decided she needed a goodbye hat (she wears a lot of knitted hats). I cheated a tiny bit, with lace, size 10 needles and chunky yarn, which meant I even had time to block!

(Imagine a picture of a navy Foliage hat here... the navy yarn defied all attempts at photography.)

I got back to the elephant as soon as I got home from the party, and finished it on Thursday.

My boat-mate emailed the day after the party that she hadn't yet taken the hat off yet, and E drooled on the elephant immediately then carried it around by its trunk...

The perfect thank yous for a sleepy knitter who'd stayed up till all hours knitting her fingers to the bone!