Monkeys!

This summer I went a little bananas over Mary Ann Stephens "Sleepy Monkey Blanket." Although it's designed as a small stroller blanket (about 20 x 20 in.) I sized it up to make a full baby blanket for my friend's daughter. Finished size was about 46 x 30.

The process began with fair isle monkeys, knit in the round. This took me from early July through early October.


Here I'm machine sewing the blanket on either side of where I'm about to cut open the steek.


Every knitter knows that this is the scary part--going at your knitting with scissors. Yikes!


This was one of the more challenging objects I've ever blocked. The geometric nature of the monkeys made it very obvious if any portion of the blanket was stretched more than another. I ended up pinning each row of monkeys, using a yard stick to align the diamond motifs between the monkey's ears. I think it took several hours to get it all right.

Next step was to pick up and knit the border. It was a lot of hurry up and wait, as my grandpa would have said. I felt like I was really close to completion having finished the main panel, but in terms of area, knitting the border was like knitting half of the blanket over again! That's what happens when you have 10-12 linear feet of knitting. I had my eyes on the finish line and neglected to photograph it with the border in process. Below you can also see the pink cotton lining, which is tufted with small purple yarn ties and is attached to the knitted front with a blanket stitch.

Finally, voila, a very happy monkey blanket for baby Violet.