Whilst venturing deep into the heart of the jungles of Ontario, I managed to photograph these two monkeys in their natural habitat (click for full-size images):

 

…Okay, so what gave it away? The ‘natural’ floor lamp the monkeys are clinging to? 😉  

I decided to try making something a bit different for a change. Don’t worry, the cute fuzzy patterns will still keep coming; I just wanted to see if I could make a more realistic animal (as more of an ‘art’ thing).

I made these from Patons Carmen (possibly the softest yarn in the world!) with Bernat Satin for the faces and feet. I wired all the limbs and the tail so the monkeys are poseable, and daddy monkey can carry his baby on his back, just like in the real world.

I know these won’t have the same universal appeal as the Fuzzies, but what do you think of them? Please let me know in the comments or by e-mail…

And, on another note, thanks to everyone who has entered my contest so far! You’ve given me some great ideas for my next patterns. Current favourites seem to be cat, dog, monkey, skunk and penguin. There’s still time to enter, if you haven’t got around to it yet – the contest is open for another week, and remember, there’s a free pattern of your choice up for grabs for the winner!

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the Fuzzy Monkeys crochet pattern in my shop.

Here’s my work in progress for this week. I’ve wanted to paint a portrait of my cat, Maui, ever since I got my paints for Christmas, but haven’t got around to it yet. As this will only be my second painting ever, I’ve been too nervous that I will mess it up. This is going to be a long process before it gets finished. So far I have I underpainted the canvas, sketched the outline and blocked in some colours. I’m really encouraged because, even though it’s very rough, it actually looks quite like Maui already!

Hoping I get a change to work on it some more soon. More to follow…