My Latest Challenge

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Lisa Thoms and I make bears, hares and other items under the name q.D.paToOtieS. I have a Blog where I share free patterns, host plush events and issue challenges in order to inspire other artists to create.

My latest challenge though was not one from my Blog but was one that a forum that I belong to called Teddy-Talk was hosting. Teddy-Talk is a forum where teddy bear artists (and plush artists) from all over the world hang out, chat, share ideas, and mainly just enjoy each other's company. Anyway, the latest challenge was called "Outside Your Comfort Zone" so I was inspired to try to create something that was totally outside of my realm of knowledge but not outside of the world of bears and plush. So I thought I would try to crochet something. I've always admired the Amigurumi artists but have only crocheted hats, scarves and the like in the past. So this was my opportunity to see if I could actually crochet something, anything, that resembled a plush character. I was inspired by some yarn I found at my local Joann's that looked like a sock monkey sock. Since I'm a sock monkey fan and junkie, I took this as a sign that I should try to crochet one for the challenge. And that's basically how the story begins.

In the photos that you see above, the half crazed crocheted sock monkey that you see on the right is called "Scary Harry." I finished him up about a week ago but was actually too embarrassed to post him here especially since he has stuffing "oozing" out of his head in places which in my opinion is just not very attractive even for a sock monkey. But I didn't give up and thought I'd have a second go at creating a crocheted sock monkey. I read about Amigurumi crocheting in the Internet and how to tighten up your tension. One trick that I read involved using a smaller crochet hook than normal for the weight of yarn that you are using. So I switched hooks and made my second monkey pictured on the left called "Handsome Herbie" and as I was making him, I carefully wrote down the stitches that I used and took plenty of pictures.

All in all, I think my challenge piece turned out pretty good or at least pretty close to what I had envisioned. And the best part is that if you want to try your hand at making your own monkey, I now have a free pattern and photo tutorial available on my Blog to share!