I had so much fun knitting this and the recipient, my almost 3 year old god daughter, is completely enamoured with him.

This is my first time knitting a toy. I will definitely make another. I love the way that Ysolda writes her patterns, the steps flow so easily, everything is possible, little challenges are hardly noticeable. I knitted this just as written in 2 and 1/2 days of frequently interrupted knitting and I never felt overwhelmed.

His irresistible blue eyes are from a little scrap of berroco pure merino I had hanging around after my Hap Blanket Project.

Thanks to other ravelers, who shared djinnj’s youtube video and therefore saved me much agony and hair pulling. The video is a much much easier to follow explanation of the techknitter’s disappearing loop cast on. The part I found most useful began at around 5:30 mins in. After a few pauses and rewinds I managed to get this done in a short amount of time.

Picking up stitches for the ears and also for the arms were the most difficult parts for me, But I found picking up with smaller needles (size 1) and knitting with my shortest (4 inch) sock dpn’s eased the way.

The hardest part of all, however, was the strain on the finger tips due to knitting with this yarn at this tension. My index fingers are still sore. But it was well worth it. And I’ll go through it all again to make an Elijah for my own baby. But I shall let my fingers recover a little while first.