Tiny Elf Pattern in Spud & Chloe - Downloadable PDF

Tiny Elf Knitting Pattern by Susan B. Anderson – Free Downloadable PDF from Spud & Chloe

The Tiny Elf is a charming, small stuffed toy knitted in the round using Spud & Chloe Sweater yarn. Designed by the beloved knitwear designer Susan B. Anderson and offered as a free downloadable PDF, this beginner-friendly pattern produces an adorable miniature elf figure complete with a striped body, stuffed form, and embroidered facial details. It makes a wonderful handmade holiday decoration, gift topper, or soft toy for older children.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a small, three-dimensional stuffed elf toy. The elf features a rounded, pillow-like body worked from the bottom up, with colorful horizontal stripes suggesting a classic elf costume. The body is shaped through increases and decreases to create a compact, rounded silhouette. Embroidered details using black embroidery floss add facial character, and a green pipe cleaner is incorporated as an internal armature or decorative element. The toy is filled with polyester fiberfill, and optionally weighted at the base with poly-pellets for stability — though the pattern clearly notes that poly-pellets should not be used in toys intended for babies or small children due to choking hazards.

Yarn and Materials

The pattern calls for Spud & Chloe Sweater yarn, a worsted- to aran-weight yarn composed of 55% superwash wool and 45% organic cotton, sold in 100-gram/160-yard skeins. Three colorways are used:

• Ice Cream #7500 – used for skin-tone or accent areas
• Grass #7502 – used for the green stripe sections of the elf's body
• Firecracker #7509 – used as the primary body color and for shaping rounds

Only small amounts of each color are required, making this an ideal pattern for using up leftovers from larger Spud & Chloe projects. Additional materials include black embroidery floss, an embroidery needle, a yarn needle, scissors, a stitch marker, a ruler or tape measure, polyester fiberfill, optional poly-pellets, and a green pipe cleaner.

Needles and Gauge

The pattern is worked on a set of four US size 6 double-pointed needles, which are essential for knitting small circumferences in the round without the use of a circular needle. The recommended gauge is 5.5 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch. Because this is a stuffed toy with no need to fit a body, gauge is relatively forgiving, though it will affect the final size of the elf.

Techniques Used

This pattern is classified as beginner difficulty and introduces or reinforces several fundamental knitting techniques:

• Knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, with stitches divided across three needles and a fourth used as the working needle
• Casting on and joining to work in the round without twisting
• Increases using kfb (knit front and back), which adds stitches to shape the rounded body
• Decreases using k2tog (knit two together), used to taper and close the top of the body and head
• Colorwork through simple stripe knitting, alternating between Firecracker and Grass in a repeating sequence to create horizontal stripes
• Seaming and finishing, including closing cast-on holes, weaving in ends, and stuffing the figure as work progresses
• Embroidery using black floss to add facial features

Stitches Used

• Knit stitch – the foundation of the entire pattern, worked in the round to produce stockinette fabric
• Kfb (knit front and back) – a simple increase stitch used