"Did you ever see an Elephant fly?"

Remember how a couple posts ago I was making Flying Pigs left and right?  Well, I am still making them (because they're awesome) but I wanted to do something a little different for Dad.

Did I mention I have his sense of humor?

Looks good in blue.

My dad is pretty awesome and I wanted to give him a yellow pig (yellow is his favorite color).  But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to give him a pig, but something a little more personal. DUMBO!

You can kind of see how big it is.

When I got my first car, it was originally my dad's who just gave it to me. He used this opportunity to buy himself a new Ford truck.  It's huge. I forget all the fancy dimensions, but it's a great farm-ish-use truck.  But here's the best part - the rear-view mirrors stick out so much from the side that he nicknamed it Dumbo (get it? Big  grey truck with big ol' ears?).

So, in honor of his beloved Dumbo, I modified the following tutorial to make Dumbo... the flying elephant.  I skipped on the wings part because it wasn't true to the Disney version of the animal.  I did have to make a small little yellow hat to match.  And, I agree, the ears aren't quite big enough to be considered Dumbo but it's close enough for me.

I still think he's cute.

The only modifications to the tutorial that I did were on the snout and the ears.

Snout modifications

- Round 11 - Don't purl.  Instead, knit until you've got a 1" or 1.25" tube.  Then decrease your stitches to 3 per needle (prior to this step you had 4 per needle!).
- Knit with these 3 stitches per needle for another 1" - 1.25" (depends on how long you want the trunk"
- Once you've reached your desired length, purl one round
- SSK, Knit to the end (you will end up with 2 stitches on each needle or 6 total).
- Then continue as it states in the tutorial for the last step: Cut the yarn and place the end on a yarn needle. Pull through the remaining stitches and pull up tight to close the hole. Secure with a couple of stitches. Pull the end to the inside and trim.

Ears/Inside of the ears

Cast on 4 stitches as it instructs
- k1, m1, k2, m1, k1
- Purl
- k1, m1, k3, m1, k1
- Purl
- k1, m1, k2end
- Purl

Once I reached the max. width of the ears that I liked, I then started k2gether at the beginning of each row and p2gether at the end of each row (it helped create a rapid drop look).

His legs make it look even more lopsided.

Any suggestions on how to make the ears better, I'd love to "hear" it (ha, ha..).  I know one of mine is lopsided. But ah well! At least he flies (thanks to the bouncy ball inside..).

Dumbo's Signature Yellow Hat

- Treat it exactly as one of the legs in the tutorial until you get to round 3. Knit 3 more rounds (total of 6).
- Round 7 - k1, m1, k2
- Round 8 + 9 knit
- Round 10 - k1, m1, k3
- Knit until you're happy (total height = 2" for mine).
- Bind off then fold up the just finished end to make it look like a beanie. Whip stitch the original end together to it's a hat!

I think he's SUPER cute with the hat. I had to hide him from the hubby (as noted in the other post,  he tends to steal gifts not intended for him....).

Front view. I love the hat!

 His tail has embroidery thread tied on it to make it look more like an elephant's tail.

Here you can see the ears being off. Argh.

But he's still SUPER cute! I hope Dad likes him!