Mini Monkeys!

Oh my god!! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE my mini monkeys?!? THEY ARE THE CUTEST SOCKS EVER! And, if I didn’t believe it before, I’m here to bear witness that a picot edge makes EVERYTHING in the world sunshine and unicorns and rainbows. It’s like a big hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and rainbow jimmies and TWO cherries on top for your feet!

Here is my mini monkey formula: knit 5 rounds, yo k2tog – repeat for entire round, knit five rounds, knit together stitch and cast on edge to create picots next round, knit one round, start monkey pattern. I then did FOUR repeats for the cuff, which gave me about a 3.5″ – 4″ cuff, then do the heel and foot as directed by the pattern. All done on Size 1 Addis. I DEFY you to tell me these aren’t the cutest socks EVER!

I made them with vintage STR from my stash – the lighter pinky color is Watermelon Tourmaline, which is still available on the Blue Moon website, and the green blue colorway is Seastone, which Tina told me is now discontinued. Both socks are from the old put up – 325yds. I’m not sure how much I’ll have left over, but it won’t be much. There’s a possibility that I could do another repeat on the leg, but I think I’m sticking with this formula. I don’t have to worry about running out of yarn AND I don’t want them any higher on my leg. This length is PERFECT. The best part is that the monkey pattern really has little to no give so they stand straight up. No slouching here. I LOVE THEM!

Last night I cast on for the second Watermelon Tourmaline sock. I just wish it wasn’t a million degrees outside. I might just have to crank up the air and sock it around all day.

I received a couple concerned emails yesterday regarding my self-proclaimed craziness. Thank you so much for caring, but I didn’t mean to say that I was crazy (well, no more so than usual) but that IT was crazy. Meaning life. And all the stuff I have to do. I’ve got a lot of work which is GOOD, but I’m feeling the pull of the deadline, so I opted not to kill myself by staying up late to finish the socks and thus have a legitimate post for yesterday. I hope today makes up for that fact. Thanks for reading!

Comments

  1. You do Monkeys better than anyone else;-)

  2. glad to see you say jimmies!

  3. I’m on my second pair and I love your little ones. That will help me eke out some handspun, I suspect, maybe even with contrasting toes and heels…thanks for the inspiration, as always!

  4. Those are so lovely. I don’t have any STR in the older put-up amounts but I wonder if they would work for the colinette sock yarn which had a smaller number of yards (I can’t remember exactly how small). Looks like it’s time to go pull out some shorter skeins and see what becomes mini monkeys!

  5. love the monkeys! picot edge! aahhhh! enjoy the life craziness. 😉

  6. Good to hear you’re not crazy (does that mean I’m the only one?)

  7. Monkeys are fun to make. I’ve got a little stockpile of sock yarn designated for more. Your mini monkeys are really cute!

  8. I’m loving your version of the monkey. I think I will have to copy it for my next pair 🙂

  9. You’re right. They are the cutest Monkeys I’ve seen! If I ever finish my current projects, Monkeys are next on my list. So you know it’s gonna be Monkey see, Monkey do!:)

  10. Very cute! I have some yarn in my stash reserved for monkeys 🙂 I think I’ll have to do the picot edge too.

  11. they ARE pretty damn cute.

  12. They look great! I particularly like the blue-green one. 🙂

  13. Those are cute socks. I do love the colors you have used.

  14. I am in total agreement, cutest socks ever.

  15. Wow – the mini monkeys are super cute! I really must try that. Thanks for sharing your formula!

  16. I so need to knit some Monkeys — mini ones — but am using all my self control to hold off until I’ve finished the socks currently in my Tub O’Knitting. What fun to pop over and see yours!

  17. “Jimmies”
    Hee!
    You’re such a south-jersey girl.
    🙂

  18. Jimmies…a real east-coast word. My husband (from Baltimore) and my parents (both from Boston) all call them jimmies…my husband adamantly so. So do I, as a matter of fact. Aside from what we all top our sundaes with, the socks are very cute. I like the picot edge.

  19. LOVE the picot edge, so here’s a question from a not-so-fabulous sock-knitter – do you pick up the stitches on the cast on row on another circ and THEN knit together with the row you’re on OR do you pick them up and knit as you go around. I’m just thinking the second way would be hard for ME to keep straight, seein’ as how I ain’t nearly as adept at this as your-own-self! Your stuff is just great AND I gotta’ get me some sock stretchers if not for anything but display!

  20. Oh those are sooo cute!

  21. Hi Cara! Your socks give me hope! I have size 5.5 feet, so the pattern on size 2 needles were, needless to say, a bit baggy on me. I am going to try your formula and see how they turn out. Thanks for sharing!!!!
    Oh, and a note on the obsessiveness of the the Monkey–I knit a whole sock in one day, watching the Firefly series on DVD. hee hee!

  22. I’m just about to cast on a pair for my Sockapalooza Pal, and this is perfect. Thanks!

  23. Quick question — do you do the picot edging as your cast on and then knit from there? I can’t quite picture how it would be done otherwise, but your discription doesn’t sound like you did it that way. help! (love love love the socks, by the way :))

  24. Those are the cutest socks I’ve ever seen!

  25. I love your minis.

  26. I love these monkeys the best so far. The picot edge is awesome. Thanks for putting your recipe out there. I can’t wait to start a pair.

  27. What more can I add? These are, hands down, the cutest darn socks around!! I see monkeys in my future. Explain that picot edge again….please….

  28. Dang! Those are cute. I love the length.

  29. Those are so cute Cara! You know when I finally get around to knitting monkeys – I’m so copying you!

  30. You’ll get no argument from me – that picot edge is the only remaining detail to making this the PERFECT sock pattern. I’m making a pair for my mother this year and it will definitely have that edge!

  31. I love the mini monkeys! I’ll have to keep that in mind as I have a great skein of the Jitterbug, but they are kind of shy on yardage and I’m loath to buy two skeins of it at over $20 a pop.

  32. Love them monkeys! So, how do you really feel about the picot edge?

  33. Another convert to the cult of picot. Nice!

  34. Cara, hope you can help 🙂 as I know you are a monkey maniac (me too). I plan on trying your picot cuff on my NEXT pair…however i had a mishap on my 1st pair which of course I always throw in my purse as i knit….yadda yadda… i’m somewhere in the 3th round and all needles fell out… i had to rip a row or two and I am back on all fours… but I cannot figure out what in God’s name row I’m on… Any hints?

  35. Arrgh! So! Cute!!
    Thanks for sharing your info on the mod.
    This may very well be one of the cutest socks ever. EVER!

  36. You are right Cara, they ARE the cutest socks ever!

  37. Those colors are beautiful!

  38. You have SO convinced me. This is it. Last ditch defenses have fallen. Must. Knit. Mini-Monkeys. Now. (As always, thanks for the inspiration!)

  39. Oh, the mini-monkeys are so adorable! I love them!
    I am totally going to have to put a picot edge on a pair of socks one of these days, because I could really use that dose of sunshine and unicorns and rainbows.

  40. Perfect length and just the right amount of cuteness. And then icing on the cake with the picot edge. Love them. I wonder how the picot would look on a fat ankle/calf…hmmm.

  41. They’re oh so beautiful!

  42. That pattern looks awesome in those colors. hee hee When I call “sprinkles” jimmies, people look at me strange. They just don’t get the food thing here. They is jimmies!

  43. Those are SO the very cutest!

  44. Those are too darn cute!!! I haven’t made a monkey yet and I am afraid to try for the fact that I might be addicted. 😉

  45. Tiffanie says

    The mini monkeys are so cute they make my teeth hurt — in a good way — like when I eat too much ice cream — with jimmies — at the shore! They are a lovely summer knitting idea for this former Jersey girl.

  46. Wow, those socks are look fabulous! I think my next pair of socks are gonna be Monkeys!

  47. oh man, do i ever hear you on THAT. i feel like i’ve been on a deadline since i was BORN. i swear.
    oh and then i had to go think up a price increase, just to liven things up . . . meanwhile, the yarn piles up. the fiber piles up.
    when, oh WHEN will i ever get to use it all??

  48. Your monkeys have inspired my monkey and a half. I thought I liked Pomatomus better but discarded it a few months ago because of sizing and the chart which I couldn’t memorize. Then I saw all your monkeys and I cast on; three days later, I had a whole sock! That’s a record for me.
    To the person with size 5.5 feet–I have size 6 feet and I did the first two repeats on size 1’s using Fleece Artist Merino and then finished the rest of the sock on 0’s. I have 6 repeats on the leg and 4 on the foot with a short row heel. The short row toe is a little short but I was too lazy to rip back.

  49. dem dere tings aw SPRINKLES, who da hell is dis Jimmie?

  50. The socks are super cute. I’m really happy to see that one is in the Watermelon Tourmaline colorway. I’ve been looking at that particular color on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website, but I wasn’t sure how it would look once knitted. Its lovely!

  51. Awesome! Thanks for your sock recipe! 🙂

  52. Thanks for the mini-monkey explanation!

  53. you’ve completely inspired me to knit a pair of these, once i get to a decent place in my never-ending-sweater. i must try the monkey socks, given my love of jaywalkers (independent of and post-your obsession). and as a ps – i adore your photos. theyre always beautifully composed and well thought out.

  54. You’re an inspiration. I think I might have to hop on this Monkey Craze!

  55. Hi, I’m obviously stupid…
    I have no idea what you’re trying to say here and I REALLY really want to know because MY Monkeys need a picot edge too!
    “knit 5 rounds, yo k2tog – repeat for entire round, knit five rounds, knit together stitch and cast on edge to create picots next round, knit one round, start monkey pattern.”
    Is that just how you’ve written out the instructions for a basic picot edge where one end is sewn down into the cuff or am I missing something?

  56. I realized later on yesterday that I was at four repeats on my second pair so I just went ahead and started the heel. They’re Sockotta for summer anyway, might as well be short!

  57. And WHERE is the Monkey pattern? I have discovered lots of sockyarn in my stash. Love the picot.

  58. Great looking socks, so yummy the way you describe things, your so good!

  59. Those socks are adorable, and I completely agree with you on picot edgings – they look wonderful on almost anything!