Carl, for my nephew

I made this monkey for my nephew and named him Carl. He just seemed like a Carl to me. The socks are by Little Mismatched, which I thought would be cool, but I'm not 100% sure that I like. I like the idea of the crazy colors and combos, but I'm not sure if I like the end product as much as more traditional socks. Good colors are important, but I think this many colors and patterns might detract from the monkey itself.

My nephew is about 2 1/2, and kind of a bruiser (I'm sure he'll follow in his dad's athletic footsteps), so Carl was double-reinforced everywhere. I found out later that two of the monkeys I made for a co-worker split at seams (though, apparently not too terribly, her daughter has a Dora band-aid on the monkey's tail and kind of likes it that way. Once the band-aid falls off, she'll bring it in to be fixed). So, since then I've been double-stitching all the seams AND all the attachment points. I mean, they're handmade, so if you beat them to hell, they will fall apart, but I try to make them strong enough to hold up to the everyday abuse that a kid would put them through.

I hear my nephew likes his monkey, which reminds him of his Aunt. The last time I saw him, my sister was telling me how he talks about his Aunt Cassie, who lives in Chicago. I love that, because I don't get to see him as often as I like.


You can also see in that picture the little Monkey Sleeping Bag that I made and embroidered. It looks terrible, but I've never embroidered words before, so I thinks it's ok. My nephew can't read yet, anyway. I also sent him "monkey care" instructions, which I'll post here, soon. Just the basics on how to care for the monkeys.

A little close-up of Carl with my elephant tea pot. You can see his smile is a little crooked, but I think that adds to his charm.

A better close-up shot. Carl is the first monkey that I did eyebrows on the felt - Gene has eyebrows, but not the felt half-moon. Carl's half-moon is kind of tiny, but I like it.

I always embroider my initials on my monkey's butts. For my nephew, I put them on a felt heart.

Interestingly, I have recently been putting my initials to the right of the tail, but for the first several that I made, I put them on the left. I think those on the left were turning out better than the ones I'm doing now. Maybe I will switch back.