Friday, July 6

The end is nigh


My monkey bag was so overcome by the flood of interest in him that he had to go and lie down.



Thank you for all your comments, my competition will be open until tomorrow afternoon - some kind colleague reminded me that I have to work tomorrow morning (doh! isn't working on a Saturday an infringement of my human rights??) and as RBD1 has asked if she can do the draw and her teenage hormones won't actually allow her to get up before 10, our paths won't cross until later - so if anyone you know is a knitted monkey fancier, they need to get out more. I mean, they still have time to enter.



Hmm, the trained eye may have noticed this ......



Same monkey, same bed, same sheets. Different date. Tsch! It's not even been two weeks yet. That's fine! Note to self : remember not to take any more bed shots for at least three weeks.


Monkey types and monkey mouths. (Mouthes?) (Mouves??)


No. 1 is the only monkey I made using the Evesham Dallimores pattern and although he didn't come out looking anything like the picture on the website, I still like him .......


...... we share the same love of chocolate - and the same expression whilst indulging in it


No's 2, 3 and 4 were knitted using the Sirdar pattern (in fact 2 - 11 all are) ........


and yes, I found the snout part really tricky and for a time I kept giving up with it. Also the mouth was just too tight for my liking. By No. 4 I'd started messing around with it which is why it looks a bit baggier.



No. 5 turned out to be half monkey half guppy (RGH keeps asking if I'll knit him a proper monkey mask. I keep refusing. Politely) .......

....... or as my Father-in-law said only last weekend "A lovely little bear". Wt(child friendly)f??

No. 6's mouth may be the baggiest of the lot ......






But I think by 007 I'd perfected the look I was happy with .......

LOVE YOU DANIEL CRAIG! ...... ahem, I mean 007, obviously


So. What did I do? Well, that's a very good question and I'm glad you asked. I kind of did this ......



It's all very technical, as you can see by my rudimentary jottings. From the 10th row on the bottom jaw I just knit and purl then increase a bit on the last row. And on the top jaw after shaping the snout I increase instead of decrease. Then when you're working inside the mouth you have to adjust slightly for the extra stitches.


Well. Good luck with that then - I'm off!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My name's Jim
I'm kind of funky
And I want to win
That fabulous monkey!

Monkee Maker said...

Cool comment Jim, I want you to win too! Apart from I also want KiTTY to win. Oh and I want all the other entrants to win too. I feel competition stress coming on! I need chock-lit. Or a muffin. Or a chock-lit muffin.

julie said...

I'm so glad that someone other than me rates knitting toys way above housework in their scale of priorities. Ironing your teatowels or changing your duvet cover every day just isn't what life is all about! Hope monkey doesn't get too vain after all this attention and is happy to pop in a jiffy bag rather than demanding a chauffeur-driven limo to drop him off to his new home!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the helpful knitting info and advice about how you tackled your monkeys. I will be trying to get hold of some wool at the weekend, as I can resist the urge to attempt my first monkey no longer! My Other Half has banned me from bringing any more monkeys into the flat, but I have a plan to get around this - I will say I'm knitting a very large, strangely-shaped pair of mittens. What they don't know can't hurt them :o)

Looking at the pattern, I'm slightly daunted by this project, so do please keep posting pictures of your monkeys as they will help inspire me to keep going if things get tough!

Thanks again,
VC x