Skip to main content

Mad Monkey Knits

I am so lucky to have people in my life who seem to enjoy my obsession with knitting about as much as I do.  For example,  I received a wonderful gift from one of my daughter-in-laws, Suzanne, relating to this obsession.

A while back I yammered about the great work of Christine Grant from Mad Monkey Knits, a knitting designer from the UK.  Suzanne meticulously went through Grant's site then purchased and printed in colour (yea, I love having patterns printed in colour) no less than six different fun animal knitting patterns.  I'll list the names of the patterns here, and if you wish, feel free to go to MadMonkeyKnits.com to see all of them using the search function:

          *Lottie Lobster                                        
          *Pet Baby Chimpanzee
          *Bobby the Boxing Kangaroo
          *Eddie the Nursery White Elephant
          *The Meerkat Family                                
          *Tracy Triceratops and Baby

Pictured here is Lottie Lobster ready to eat (well not really, unless you truly want lots of fiber):

Christine Grant's Lottie Lobster

And I think I know some young guy who simply needs a couple of triceratops in his life.

Christine Grant's Triceratops Family
Lately I have been making far too many useful/practical items.  It is time to get back to the more whimsical, quirky items I love to knit and these patterns are just the inspiration I need.  So a belated, but nonetheless sincere, thank you Suzanne.  These patterns are quite a wonderful gift indeed for someone with my type of interests.  ( Do you think the Lemur Centre at Duke could use a few knitted meerkats to go along with the lemurs? Yup, you're right, probably not.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned ou...

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or h...