Master class with a description and step-by-step photos of a do-it-yourself toy – crocheted monkey.
Symbol of 2016 – cheerful and perkymonkey. It just so happens that every home is inhabited by that toy representative of the fauna who patronizes the New Year in the Chinese calendar. This could be a purchased souvenir or a gift from friends. But more and more often housewives prefer to do it themselves. And here there is no limit to the imagination of needlewomen… In my master class I want to show how to knit a cute and kind monkey. She will sit on the shelf and protect the house from troubles all next year.For a knitted monkey you need:– threads of light brown and white colors. The MK uses 100% acrylic, the length of the thread is 25 meters in 40 g. The work took 120 g of brown and approximately 20-30 g of white. The monkey came out 44 cm tall; – hook No. 5; – cotton wool or padding polyester for stuffing; – two black beads for eyes; – two large black beads for the nose; – some red thread for the mouth and lacing; – needle; – wire for handles and tail. The number of loops and dimensions in cm are given specifically for these threads and a monkey of this size. If you need a larger or smaller size, then change the number of loops, following the knitting principle. The same thing with the thickness of the threads. Let's start knitting our monkey from the limbs – legs, arms, tail. For the leg we knit a chain of 8 chain stitches.Let's connect the loops into a ring.And we’ll knit 8 simple single crochets into a ring.Next we will knit in a spiral, without lifting loops.This is how knitting works. The leg will curl a little.Having knitted 17 cm, we finish our leg. We knit the second one in the same way.We knit the arms and tail in the same way. BUT! We knit the handles on 7 loops and the same length as the legs, and the tail on 5 loops and a little longer.Next we proceed to knitting the body of our monkey. We collect a chain of 40 air loops and close it into a ring.We will also knit the monkey’s body in a spiral, without marking the beginning of the row. We knit 20 rows like this (the rows are easy to count, the beginning is not important).After this, we begin decreasing. We knit together every 10 and 11 loops. And decrease until there are 24 loops left.Next we start knitting the head. Let's make a ring of 4 air loops.Let's knit 6 in a ring in the first row, and in the second – 12 loops.Next we will make increments to make itcircle. To do this, we will divide all the loops by 6. And we will add at the end of each sector. That is, there are 12 loops in a circle. Divide by 6 – we get 2. We knit one column without changes, in the second we make an increase – from one column we knit 2. In the next row the number of loops became 18. Divide by 6 – it turns out 3. So, we knit two columns without changes, and in the third we make increases. We get 24 loops.And so we knit in a circle. Until the number of loops reaches 48 pieces.Next we knit 10 rows without changes and beginmake reductions. We make reductions in exactly the same way. Initial quantity – 48. divide by 6 = 8. That is, we knit 7 and 8 loops together. We get a row of 42 loops. But when decreasing, we decrease one row, leaving the second unchanged. This way we get a smoother decrease. Decrease until the number of stitches is 24.Now let's tie the ears. The ears will consist of 4 parts, which we will knit in pairs. 2 white parts and two brown. Let's start with 6 air loops.Next we will tie the ring with 9 simple stitches. But you need to do it so that you get more of an oval than a circle.We unfold the knitting.We will knit one stitch to lift the row and in the first stitch we will knit another simple stitch. Next we knit a stitch in a stitch three times. In the fourth column – top of the ear – knit 3 simple stitches. Then again three times in a column. We knit two simple stitches into the last stitch. Unroll the knitting again. We knit this row in the same way, with increases at the beginning, middle and end of the row. We've finished knitting.This is how they knitted 4 identical parts.Now, using a brown thread, we will tie the parts together in pairs – white and beige.We tie it in a circle – the bottom also needs to be tied. This is what the ear should look like.We knit the second eye in the same way.Now let's move on to the muzzle. We will knit it in white. First, let's collect four air loops and connect them into a ring.We will tie six simple columns into a ring.We will knit the muzzle in the round, making increases in each row. We will add two loops at a time, then we will get a convex muzzle.In order to get an oval and not a circle, we will always make increases in the same places – On the sides. From one side.And on the other, exactly opposite the first.Five rows is enough. Let's finish the row and move on to the eyes.To do this, we will knit five air loops and connect them to the muzzle, skipping two stitches.Let's go back to the center, tying the chain with simple columns. We will knit the second eye socket symmetrically.And we will finish the muzzle by tying it in a circle with simple columns. We will also make two increases on the sides.All parts of the monkey are ready, we can startassembly. Let's start assembling it by sewing the leg to the body. But for this, the body needs to be finished knitting from the bottom. While it is flat at the bottom, we need to make it the same as at the top - rounded. To do this, we will tie the body in a circle and make decreases. We will knit the first row loop to loop, without changing.Next we will decrease every 10th loop. We will decrease until the body is exactly the same as the two legs of the monkey.When the opening at the bottom of the body is reduced to the required size, we tie the legs. To do this, you need to turn the body inside out and attach the legs as in the photo.Now we knit a row immediately for the loops of the legs and body.When the legs are tied to the body, we turn everything inside out.While the body is not stuffed, you need to sew the tail to it. To make the tail flexible, insert a wire into it. Cut a piece of wire 3-4 cm longer than the knitted part.We wrap one end into a ring.And we push the wire into the tail with the ring forward.We insert the second, sharp end of the wire into the place on the body where the tail should be.From the inside we also bend the wire into a ring.And we sew the tail to the body.Now you can stuff the legs. Since this is knitting, it stretches and deforms easily. Therefore, when stuffing, it is important to ensure that all paired parts are the same size.It is better to stuff the legs using a thick knitting needle, with small portions of cotton wool or synthetic padding.Now we stuff the body. We stuff the body tightly, while making sure that the tail does not shift. We do not stuff it completely, but up to the level of the arms.Now we need to cut a piece of wire a little larger than the span of our monkey's arms. We insert it through the body where the arms should be.Bend one end into a ring.And we put the first handle on the wire. Carefully, in small pieces, stuff your handwith cotton wool. It is important to ensure that the wire reaches the very end of the hand and does not shift during stuffing. We do the same with the second hand.Then we sew on our first arm.And the second one.This is what it looks like after sewing on the arms.We stuff our monkey to the end.Then we fill the head with cotton wool.And we sew it loop to loop to the body. After the head is in place, we sew on the muzzle.And we stuff the muzzle a little with cotton wool so that it has volume.Then we sew the ears to the head.On both sides.We decorate the face with eyes.With your nose.We embroider the mouth with red thread.Now we need to finish the legs of our beauty. To do this, we will knit 4 rows with a white thread also in a spiral. And we will make decreases, knitting all the loops in pairs until there is one left. Using red thread we will imitate lacing and tie a small bow.We'll do the same with the second leg.Now let's dress our monkey and give him a beautiful bouquet of dandelions.On our website you can find a master class on knitting a skirt and a vest for our beautiful monkey.