Now, if you know me, you’ve probably learned I’m not a huge fan of monkeys. No idea why, they just kinda bug me. However, through this knitting project I’ve earned a new appreciation for the little guys. Still not my favourite animal, but now at least I know I can knit a cute one.

Why knit a monkey? It is a present for my boss’ new child. I know the boss loves monkeys, so it was an easy choice. I looked high and low for a nice pattern, through my toy books and online, and I eventually found this great free pattern by Sarah Keen. Click to enlarge all photos.

Here he is from the side. He’s got a little bit of junk in the trunk so he’ll sit upright. As you can see, he’s been knit in pieces and seamed, which was the only fiddly part of the pattern. He wasn’t too difficult otherwise. Assembling the monkey, especially the face, was a bit tricky, as the instructions weren’t too specific on the placement of pieces. I had to take a look at other peoples’ monkeys to see if I was on the right track. In the end, I think it worked out fairly nicely.

He is made out of Knitpicks Swish DK, in Nutmeg (light brown) and Cinnamon (darker brown). I used about 1.5 balls of Cinnamon for the body, and maybe half a ball of Nutmeg for the hands, feet, ears, and face. I really overshot the yardage necessary and bought enough yarn to make about 3 more monkeys. With Knitpicks’ prices, the yarn was under $10. The stuffing was a few bucks, and I used some leftover sock yarn to sew on a face and make his spiffy little scarf. Not bad! Hopefully he’ll be a hit with the new kiddo.