Satisfied.

Friday, I sorted out what I would do for the ears.  I just did not like the ears as written in the pattern.  Not at sock yarn scale anyways.  I sorted it out and forgot to write it down and when I did what I thought I had done on the first pair, I could not get it right.  So yesterday I had to come up with something else.  I went with a simple round ear knit firmly with two strands of yarn.  The decreases just naturally seemed to give the a curl that is just right.  You will see below.

Today I faced my last big problem for my monkeys.  This is the monkey mouth as from the pattern.  It is just too big, too wide and too sticky out for the cuteness I wanted these to have.  I don't actually like it on the worsted weight projects online either so I knew it needed something different.

 I looked at tons of monkeys online from all sources and found that the ones I disliked shared the very very large mouths.  I preferred monkey with a thin line mouth much better, so I decided to come up with something like it.  This was my first try.  

It turned out fine, but it seemed a little wide to me.  I would have gone with it if I could have figured out a tidy way to sew it on the face in an even line.  I have six to do.  There had to be a better way.

He looks like he is puckering up to kiss someone.  I picked up stitches where I wanted the mouth to sit on both the top and bottom and knit a little garter stitch patch in red and white.  Do not ask to see the back.  Nothing technical right about the way I carried the white and I do not care.  If I have my way, no one will ever see the back.  It was far easier to do, even though it still was fiddly, but I liked the way the monkey looked.

I finished one monkey to see if there were better ways to attach stuff and to see if the arms, tails and ears were easy to sew.  They were and voila.  One complete monkey with another partial.  Almost complete.  I will embroider eyes on when all the monkeys are done. 

I even got his wee tail on.

It's one of those days of work where I just feel satisfied in a very old fashioned sort of way.  There is lots to do yet, but I feel like the end is near.  I might be able to get to some knitting for myself before Christmas yet.