Those Special Monkeys

Do you remember me saying on my last monkey post that I was working on some special monkeys? And that I would tell you when they had been delivered to their eventual recipients? Well they are now in their new home and I can stop having a major panic about whether or not they are 'ok' because they apparently are. (Although would someone actually tell me if they weren't?)

This special pair of monkeys were the result of an initial email back in 2008 from a friend of a friend. She was looking for something a little out of the ordinary and wondered if I could help? Basically her sister was getting married, and the husband-to-be was mad keen on sock monkeys. The idea was that I make a wedding couple of sock monkeys. Only the friend of a friend wanted the monkeys to be wearing clothes like the actual bride and groom would be wearing. Could I help?

Hmmmmm. I had a little think about it, and then thought 'why not?' ... I would do my best anyway. So ... I was sent information on what, precisely the bride and groom would be wearing.

The groom would be wearing a kilt made from a very specific tartan: Lindsay tartan. Luckily, the lovely lady who wanted these monkeys managed to find me some of this tartan, so at least I didn't have to source it. We discussed other options and decided the monkey should just wear the kilt and a waistcoat, but also have a sporran. Thus my mother phoning me one evening only to be met with a phrase I never thought I'd utter: "I'm just knitting a sporran for a monkey". Anyway, here's the groom monkey:

Cotton socks from M&S in a turqoisey blue and palest grey stripe, with a single row of silver lurex here and there. Black felt waistcoat, kilt from tartan wool, sporran knitted from eyelash yarn, with some black felt, and 'chain' made from crocheted silver fingering. The buttons on the waistcoat are little crystal beads.

The bride was a more complicated challenge. I was sent a picture of the bride's actual gown:

Photos taken from here

And wanted to interpret it as best I could in a way that was suitable for a monkey. First I made the dress in plain white cotton percale, but that was just too plain and boring, so I overlaid that with a self-patterned white-on-white quilting cotton. I found a lace trim that I adapted to make the trim on the dress, and used a deep cerise quilting cotton for the inserts on the back. It was finished with a cerise ribbon:

Made from pink and pale grey cotton M&S socks, with the same silver lurex occasional thread as in the groom monkey socks. The lady who requested the monkeys was planning to make a tiara herself for the bride monkey, from wire and beads. I emailed her with the circumference of the bride monkey's head as soon as it was complete.

I was so worried that these two monkeys should be good enough to be given to a couple on their wedding day - it was such a tall order. But apparently they were delighted with their rather individual present. Phew.

Here's wishing them a long and happy marriage.

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