Two more monkeys…
I had hoped that this week would finally mark the end of my sock-monkey-making labours, but it’s not to be. I made the fellow on the left there for my friend Kyrenia, who’s leaving our company and moving to Melbourne with her boyfriend. (Check out his jaunty wool scarf; it gets cold in Melbourne!) To my chagrin, the entire office fell in love with him and I had requests for three more. I couldn’t say no. I’ll be sewing blasted sock monkeys til I die! The rockstar monkey on the right is at long last being shipped off tomorrow to Adrien. His scarf is knitted from eyelash yarn and it’s so tomorrow, you know. If I have to make the damn things, I can at least make them fashionable. 🙂

My Oscar Contest has officially stopped accepting new entries, so I figured I’d better show you all what you’re playing for. Meet Oscar the Sock Monkey! As you can see he’s all dressed up in black tie and silver sparkles. He’s got googly eyes and a big grin, and he’s even got his own little Academy Award!

As the response to the contest was about ten times what I was expecting – 144 entries? Who the heck are all you people? – I’m also providing regular sock monkeys for second and third place. The Awards start at 5:30 PM Pacific time Sunday, which means 12:30 PM Monday afternoon here. As I’ll be at work all day at the draconian, no-Internet unnamed printer company, you’ll have to wait til I get home for the results to be tallied. Basically, plan on the winner being named about five hours after the Awards start. Good luck everyone!

  

Sock Monkeys Galore!
Well, the Walk Against Want was today, and unfortunately yours truly was too sick to take part. I don’t think this amoxycillin is doing the trick. Anyhoo, I still plan on tackling the distance (15 km) on the treadmill as soon as I’m able. To thank my three sponsors, I spent the day crafting sock monkeys for them. Aren’t they cute? They’re actually much better than the first one I made for the Snook (but don’t tell him that). And don’t forget, if you want one of your own you can enter my Oscar Contest.

“Ehhh, monkey!”
Yeah, it’s yet another craft. For some reason the other day I decided I wanted to make the Snook a sock monkey. It was a really quick project and I finished it in just a couple hours. I found the original instructions, but I ended up using this page more. As you can see, it turned out all wonky. (His arms, for example, are clearly not lined up.) The Snook likes it though, and he’s named him “Johnny Vegas” (after the comedian that did the On Digital ads with the sock monkey in the UK).

Cutest. Craft. Ever. I’ve had this Funky Chicken Pincushion pattern bookmarked for ages, and last night I finally decided to give it a try. They’re really easy to make. (The hardest part was getting the squares, uh, square.) I did them on the machine, but you could probably hand sew them too. I stuffed them with leftover quilt batting and sewed on buttons for eyes. Aren’t they so friggin’ cute? I have a ridiculous urge to make about fifty and sell them at the hippie market on the weekend. They’d make awesome Christmas presents.

Sidenote: I was just going to embroider the eyes until the Snook pointed out that there’s a button shop just a couple blocks from our house. I’m like, “How can anyone run a business that only sells buttons?” Curiousity piqued, I scampered off to find it. Turns out it’s called “All Buttons Great and Small”, and it really does just sell buttons. There are big ones and little ones and shiny ones and ones shaped like farm animals. I loved it. I wanted to possess all the buttons. Am I turning into Martha Stewart or what?

UPDATE: The link to the original website with the pattern doesn’t work, so I wrote up what I could remember from memory here. Please don’t e-mail me saying you can’t find it!