Elephant Earmuffs

So I've been very busy. My friends know I swore off swapping for a couple months, and then...

Anyway, I angeled for a really nice gal who's stuffie was whisked away from her in Little Visitor. I guess its part of the risk, but what a shame!

Anyway, I decided to make her a stuffie and buy one for her, and I think I assembled a nice package for her.

Part of the package was this adorable little elephant that I named Aliya (Sri Lankan for Elephant) - created from Romansock's cute little Pocket Elephant pattern:



But an elephant lives in the jungle! What was she going to do in Michigan? So I made her some winter gear!



These are her earmuffs, because I imagined an elephant would lose a lot of heat through her ears!

So if you'd like to make some cute earmuffs for your elephant, here's the pattern:

Start with the left side and chain 7. Do 9 treble crochets into chain #4. Slip stitch from the last treble crochet into chain #1.

Then, create the middle of the left side - single crochet back to chain #7 on the half moon side. In effect, this is what you are creating:



Then you're going to chain 7 and repeat. The only difference is you are going to anchor each treble crochet onto the single crochet stitches in the middle with a slip stitch.

So in effect, the instructions look like this: Chain 7, create treble crochet in chain #4, slip stitch into single crochet row, create treble crochet from the top (where you just slip stitched) and anchor into chain #4 with a slip stitch, and repeat until you have 9 total. When you're finished with the last treble crochet, anchor it with a slip stitch to the end of the single crochets.

Then you're going to create the brace at the top of the earmuffs. This one's easy - chain 10, single crochet 10 stitches, and chain 10 into the single crochets so you reach the end of the line.



Now this is where it gets a bit tricky. You're going to repeat the same steps you did to make the first muff but you need to make sure that you face the bottom/foundation chain to the middle! If you don't, you're going to end up with a twisted muff on the right side. And don't feel bad if you have to try it a couple times - even I had to and I designed the pattern!

(In case you forgot or prefer the shorthand, here's how to make the muff: ch 7, 9 tc in ch 4, sl st ch 1. ch 7, *tc in ch4, sl st to sc #1, tc in sc #1, sl st to ch 4* Rep * until 9 tc, sl st ch 1. (make sure to face bottom chain to the inside!).)

This pattern is also registered in Ravelry (look for me as cfbandit).