My first arigurumi - Blue Monkey

March sees the start of Birthday Season here in the Snipsnaphappy household.  It starts with Hubby's birthday (god he is scarily old now...closer to 40 than 30) and ends with mine in April with various parents, siblings, friends, god-chidren and relatives in between.  It is utterly exhausting and more expensive than Christmas.

For my nearest and dearest I always like to give a little handmade gift and this year is no exception.  I've never really tried arigurumi before, I made a little heart but not a proper creature, so being me I waited until three days before Hubby's birthday before starting.  Nothing like a little pressure to get things moving. 

Now, I don't know if it was the lovely yarn (Patons Smoothie in cream and Rowan Alpaca Cotton in blue) or the pattern, or just the fact I love monkeys, but this project was thoroughly enjoyable.  Best of all though is that at the end of it I had a new little friend...

Lillia has named him Bluey White, which suits him well I am sure you agree!  I added a jaunty little bow made from Cath Kidston ribbon as he seemed to be a dapper little fellow.

He was waiting with Hubby's pressies when he got home from work.  Hubby was delighted!  Though possibly more delighted with the lovely bottle of Chateauneuf...

Bluey White will have to spend his days above floor level at all times though.  You see his bottom is stuffed with lentils and the last creation I made with lentils in its bottom (a gremlin named Rosie) had a rather unfortunate injury when we had mice.  The mice have now been evicted and Rosie has recovered well but still bears the scars and doesn't like to talk about it...

Bluey will therefore be protected from a similar fate, just in case the mice sniff a treat and return :)

More birthday makes from me later this week, including a cake the colour of a dead fish and a dancing skeleton...you have been warned.

Happy Hooker Backwards Project 39 - Li'l Monkey

Well after a slight setback whilst I waited for a further supply of grey Wendy Serenity yarn I have finally managed to finish my second Happy Hooker Backwards project!  And I have to say I am delighted.  I love the yarn, I love the colours, I love the look of the whole thing. 

Here it is...

The original pattern called for the traditional sock monkey colours of red, tan and cream - a combination I love - but I wanted a much girlier version.

This yarn is super soft - it's a mix of wool, alpaca and acrylic, so very washable too.  In fact I am not going to bother with blocking as I suspect this blanket, which is destined for use as a kind of floor blanket for the new addition to roll about on, faces a lot of washing in its future!  Plenty of time for shaping and drying flat and straight then :)

Those monkey faces were quite a challenge though, more on those below.  But first lets sum up Project 39:

• Cost - about £35.00 - I used about 10 balls in total, more than double what the pattern recommends.  But I did use a different yarn as I couldn't get the required Bernat Softeee Chunkee here in the UK.
• Yarn - Wendy Serenity Super Chunky in grey, pink and cream.  I used more grey than any other colour and ended up having to track down more having made the classic mistake of not buying enough in the first place!
• Hook - 9mm and 5mm
• Difficulty - Easy!  The granny squares are easy to do and the special stitiches are really well explained in the pattern.  The hat was really quick and simple.  The monkey faces were a total pain though!  In fact I totally gave up on the pattern instructions and worked it out myself, I have written my alterations below.
• Overall happiness with finished object - absolutely delighted! It is soft, it is chunky, it is unusual, fun and girly.  There's not a member of the household who hasn't happily buried their toes into it :)

 

Now onto those darned monkey faces.  I got pretty stuck on these and looking at Ravelry I see I'm not the only one.  So here's my revisions to the pattern - basically a list of what I did to more or less make it work ok for me.  These are just me notes, I am no pattern writer!  But if they help another frustrated Happy Hooker somewhere in the world then it's worth posting them:

Rounds 1 and 2 - work to pattern

Round 3 - with colour D
Ch1, sc in same st
2 sc in nxt sc
1 sc in nxt 6 sc
2 sc in next 3 sc
1 sc in nxt 8 sc
2 sc in last sc
Sl st in first sc to join

Round 4
Ch1, sc in same st
2 sc in nxt sc
1 sc in nxt 11 sc
2 sc in nxt 3 sc
1 sc in nxt 9 sc
2 sc in last sc
Sl st in first sc to join

Round 5
Ch 1, 2 sc in same st
2 sc in next sc
1 sc in next 10 sc
2 sc in next 2 sc

Then return to pattern for the ears.

  

Two down, just 38 to go!  Next project is another blanket but this time a big one for us grown ups!  Perfect for the coming winter, more soon!

x

Guilty confession

I have a terrible admission to make.

I don't like making granny squares.

I know I know, a crochet-addict who doesn't like granny squares, like an alchoholic who doesn't like cocktails (mmmm, cocktails...)

I just find them a little tedious, all that going round and round in circles..ok..squares...the same stitches over and over and over again. to create lots of little identical, or very similar, componant parts.

*sigh*

You know what I really like?  Crocheting them all together...

...seeing them come together to create the whole...



...finally seeing the fruits of my labour...



And it's always handy to have a little helper on hand to test the softness...

Monkeys

Mr Snipsnaphappy and I have a bit of a thing for monkeys.  The first gift I bought him very early on in our relationship was a stuffed monkey who we named Munkee...

Munkee has since, over the last eight years or so, travelled everywhere with us.  He's been to the Eden Project in Cornwall...

He has joined us for a few camping holidays...

He has travelled to Scotland, France, Majorca, Spain, and New York City...

 He even came with us on our honeymoon to the Maldives...

Why is this travelling simian relevant you ask?  Well!  The next project in the Happy Hooker Backwards projects is to be...

Yes!  That's the "Li'l Monkey" Baby Hat and Matching Afghan by Carmen Watkins.   It's MONKEY TIME!

The set consists of a blanket and a cute wooly hat, both decorated with crochet monkeys.  Crochet and monkeys in the same sentence = *happiness*

I'll be making the girlier frilly version of the hat (the bottom one in the pic above).  I will also be using girlier colours. I do love the traditional sock monkey combination of red, cream and speckly tan colour, but I feel a little pink would be well received in this house :)

Now all I need to do is to work out how on earth I get hold of Bernat Softee Chunky yarn in the UK...