Just monkeying around

I bought a pair of socks at the dollar store last week with the intention of using them to make one of the many sock-based crafts out there. Decided to go with the classic sock monkey, using the directions at Craft Passion: How To Sew A Sock Monkey. As I was working on him I really thought he was going to turn out, how should I put this... "special". But in the end I think he actually came together pretty well. It helps that I changed up the mouth a little bit because my toe seam ended up lower on the muzzle, and added "nostrils" by using a french knot in each nostril to pull the muzzle into a dimple. I did the same thing to give him a "belly button", too. Originally I tried embroidering a mouth where I felt it was "supposed" to be, and he kind of looked like he'd been freed from an experimental lab somewhere!

This was a nice, quick project - started it yesterday and finished it today. I used knee length socks for my monkey, and I don't know if I'd choose to do that again. Makes the appendages all long enough to knot around things, but they also ended up kind of lumpy. I don't know how to stuff long thin tubes without lumps! I think if I did a knee sock monkey again, besides trying to find another way to stuff the arms, legs, and tail, I'd also like to add wire to the limbs to make the monkey pose-able without tying knots.