A Little Monkey Business

I have been monkeying around, honestly! :D At the sale, my neighbour mentioned an upcoming baby shower where the theme is monkeys. And so, I was off on a monkey pattern finding quest. Most of the knitted monkeys did not appeal to me ... limbs way to long, mouths seemed to be huge, with very intimidating grins on them. I wanted more of cute little monkey for a baby. After browsing many many patterns, I did find 2 that were suitable. I decided on a pattern book called Safari, by Sarah Gasson. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/safari-3 As it includes a pattern for a lion, zebra, giraffe and elephant, as well as the monkey, I have no doubt these animals will also appear in my animal collection! This is the other pattern I found that appealed to me and it is a free pattern so it may appear on the needles one day as well since I have saved it in my library. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/monkey-8 I have 3 of the little guys finished now, and they are pretty cute. I made the first one true to the pattern, but when it was finished, I thought it should be a little larger, so I used bigger needles and an extra 3 stitches in width and 2 extra rows in the body and head for the next monkey, plus I made the ears 2 stitches larger. Husband and also the home nurse thought the smaller one was cuter, so I guess that one is the winner. Monkey number 3 is more like the first monkey but with a few little tweaks ... The biggest change is using a size 4 needle, which increased the size a little to make me happy! I do not see the need for all the shaping in the arms and legs as they are so small you can not really see the shaping in the end. I have also gotten better at keeping the change of colour stitches snug. The pattern called for a pipe cleaner to be put into the tail to give it a monkey shape, but I thought that was a poor idea if the toy is going to a baby, so I just did my own tail thing. I used short rows to give it a few turns, then on the first 2 I also gathered the seam slightly so it is a bit curly and might hang onto something. I tried putting a bow on to give a little colour splash but it did not add anything to the monkeys, so instead I played around with making a banana for him to hold. The class on short row knitting paid off for me as that is how I shaped them. I still have some tweaking to do on the banana pattern, but it is coming along. The bananas are still a little big for the monkeys, but they are just hungry little guys I think! I seem to be getting quite a bit of knitting done while the Olympics are on, as that keeps me sitting in front of the tv more than is normal for me.

Monkey number 3 with the puppy from the Jean Greenhowe book. The puppy has his own little bone to chew!

I wonder which little monkey Jan would like?

The cats wanted to meet the monkeys during their photo shoot! The puppies head can swivel around, which is a different feature. It is perhaps not as secure as being sewn tightly, and I do attach my parts very securely! But, I ran more threads through to hold it than called for so I think it will prove to be a good pet for someone!