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Rupert was really special. I held onto him the longest and he was always the one I showed people. I guess he was my favorite. I loved making him. I started to play around with facial expressions. I wanted to get away from the usually smiley-faced sock monkey and go a little deeper. Rupert had a kind expression to him. When I sold him, I looked at his face and was unexpectedly sad! How funny! It’s a hard feeling to describe. but I know that Rupert is going to a great home where he will be loved by a special girl. Now, I’m going to work on making some other Ruperts 
On other fronts, I’ve decided to see if I could have a show somewhere in Seattle. A lot of my pieces are individual one-off monkeys. I haven’t figured out a way to standardize their look so that I could make a consistent product that people would want to buy. However, I thought a show would be fun and maybe it will get my name out there. Perhaps other opportunites may present themselves.
Who knows??
Jasper
Christmas is coming! I have done much monkey-making because all the Santa activities going on around here And I keep getting distracted.
I have really been wanting to knit mittens. It’s so not sock monkey-related! I think this will fall under my list of New Year’s resolutions, along with making this blog more beautiful.
Perhaps maybe someday I’ll learn to make these…
Go to http://www.freevintageknitting.com/mittens/623-mittens-pattern.html and get the free pattern. It looks really hard. If I made these, I would definitely impress my friends.
Ideally, I will be working on a few new sock monkeys this week, in which case there will be images posted. If I don’t, not to worry! Fun crafty sites will abound!
Here’s a little history.
About 4 years ago, I took a sock monkey making class at my local fabric/yarn shop, Stitches, in Seattle. The instructor was a talented local artist whose sock monkeys were being shown at Bluebottle Art Gallery, an independent art gallery in Seattle. I got to make my own sock monkey and I received a cool little book of instructions.I was so excited to make more of them! I collected bunches of socks and made lots of sketches of monkey clothes. They were so satisfying to make because I could finish them in a fairly short period of time, about 4 or 5 hours! Now I take about 15 to 20 hours to make one.
This is Alice B. Socklas. She was one of 21 sock monkeys that I made for my family one year for Christmas.
This is Sock-rates, who was made for my boyfriend’s brother who is a
philosopher professor.
For Christmas, I made 21 different monkeys for my family. These monkeys are from that group. After making all those sock monkeys, I wanted to pursue making them more seriously as an artist and possibly as a business. Hence, starting this blog is part of making that happen.
Mr.Monkey is another Christmas monkey. This was in the days when I made
my monkeys entirely by hand. Later, I started to use my fabulous new Bernina sewing machine
That’s all for now. I’m working on taking some pictures of what I’m working on now. Maybe I’ll get them up next time I post. I’m also trying to prioritize Christmas gift-making so that I don’t go crazy and make things for people I don’t even know! I’ll be working on a list in the next few days.
