Monday, January 11, 2010

Monkeys with bells on

I thought the dam would burst when I finally finished my aunt's hat, just short of a year after offering it to her... that I'd suddenly be free to knit all the projects I've wanted to make that whole time and didn't because I was doing something else for a deadline or
just feeling guilty or
knitting a sock.

Instead, I spent the weekend sewing a little project that came out quite nicely. I'll talk more about that another day but for now, I can tell you what I learned:

You can spend an entire evening standing up measuring and cutting and then most of a day standing up designing and ironing and sewing - and end up with something that fits in the palm of your hand or

You can sit on the sofa for a little less time and end up wearing a warm hat on a freezing day. Ahem.

So, moving right along:

After the sewing was done, the dam did burst, at least a little. I printed off the instructions for Cookie A's Monkey Socks, which I always liked but then felt an overwhelming need to make when I saw my friend Sandra's. Also, when I was browsing around on Ravelry I spotted a photograph of the most enchanting socks imaginable and stared for many a moment before realizing that

a/ they were knit in The Holly and The Ivy and
b/ they were Monkey Socks.

And now I have to decide whether I want to make those exact socks... or try the Monkeys in a four-colour stripe rather than the three colours of my Holly/Ivy yarn. Because this came in the mail last week:


It's cute and would be adorable in my Mary Janes in spring and - it's called Jingle Jangle. Can you really beat the idea of monkeys with bells on?

(in other news - yay! - my aunt loved the hat.)

1 comment:

Kathleen Taylor said...

Monkey is one of the few patterns that I've knit multiple times, and plan to make more. They're so gorgeous, and the pattern is fairly easy (I can't memorize lace patterns of more than 2 rows, but it's still simple enough with a chart). The pattern looks good no matter what yarn you use (plain, mottled, striped, variegated, self patterning- doesn't matter).

Another good easy-lace pattern is Spring Forward, though I think that one looks best with a more solid color yarn.