Well, I’ve really hit the big time at last. My Spencer Spinosaurus and Baby and also a couple of my meerkat knitting patterns were reviewed in the July issue no 48 of Knit Today magazine. If you have come here from Knit Today,its great to meet you. Simply click on the dinosaur or meerkat category to buy the patterns.While here why not have a look at all the other knitting patterns I have to tempt you with.If nothing else you should have a look at my blog to see just who you are dealing with here! Also speaking of fame do you recognise this baby gorilla? Yes its Cilla the Ugly Baby Gorilla and she’s had a makeover. She loves her new look and spends all day posing for the cameras just like her pop singer idol Lady Gaga. She has even renamed herself as BABY GAGA GORILLA!
I can’t believe it! There I was watching Big (Ears) Brother last night trying to get more knitting inspiration when the phone rang. It was BUCKINGHAM PALACE!!!! Apparently the Queen had been on Ebay admiring my creations and this one in particular caught her eye. I have been asked by Royal Appointment to make a big size one for her oldest son as a birthday present. Apparently she said it would be the only crown he would ever get to wear while she was around!!!!! Well now all your babies can wear this gem of a hat too. Just go to Ebay ( like the Queen) or Etsy or buy here on my regal website and grab yourself a Baby Big Ears Prince Charles Crown Beanie knitting pattern while stocks last. The Queen is even thinking of selling these in the Buckingham Palace gift shop. Will I be minted or what???? UPDATE Following the Quenn’s order for me to knit Prince Charles a Big Ears crown beanie I have received this picture and a message from Charles. Charles says that he can’t believe the “magical effect” that the beanie has had on him and that its as if “one has had ones ears cut off”. So I can now sell this pattern knowing it really has a royal seal of approval! Seriously though I decided to design a range of hats for those of you that have babies with enormous unsightly ears. Pop one of these beauties on their head and no-one will ever know! This is my latest range of knitting patterns ,The Baby Big Ears Range. They will all be available to buy in a day or two but right now I’m having to obey the Queen’s demand.
It was a beautiful weekend so I was making preparations for a photoshoot in the garden. I had some new pixie baby hats to photograph so I got all the babies washed and brushed up ready to be models. I had just got started when my husband called me for lunch on the patio. It was Vietnamese monkfish marinated in sesame oil and turmeric on a bed of noodles with prawns,mangetouts,crushed peanuts, chillis and lime. We had a lovely bottle of French dry white to go with it. Halfway through the meal we heard a commotion at the bottom of the garden and assumed it was our rowdy neighbours as usual. It was only when I returned to the photoshoot that I found out what had really been going on!!!!!! Those naughty monkeys of mine had been up to mischief again.
Life has been chaotic here in Madmonkeyworld recently due to all the new monkey arrivals. First Chesney chimpanzee turned up.He just loves playing in my tree. Then Cilla the Ugly Baby Gorilla was born. I did not have a cot so used the cat basket and for the first few days my cat Blacky was convinced that she had given birth to cilla and so looked after her for me. Since then Fizz and Fuzz the identical twin baby orangutans have moved in. And now there’s Gilbert and Baby George the golden monkeys. I don’t have the heart to turn any of them away so I seem to be running a madmonkey sanctuary right now. I used to love creeping up the stairs to the bedroom at the top of my tree but now I’m lucky if there’s any room at all left in my bed. Bathtime is no longer the peaceful experience it used to be. I’ve told all of these monkeys that they will have to do some work for me to earn their keep as my banana bill has gone sky high. Cilla kindly agreed to help model my new range of baby clothes knitting patterns but she is so ugly she seems to be frightening customers away. Chesney also agreed to model the new baby clothes as he is approximately the size of a one year old human baby. Unfortunately he’s eaten so many bananas since his arrival he now really has to squeeze his way in and its not really a good look. I’m having terrible trouble identifying Fizz from Fuzz but they spend so much time together even their mannerisms are exactly the same. I’m thinking of making them different coloured beanie hats so that I can tell which is which. Gilbert and George have been helping out with the cooking. Due to their chinese origins they make the best sweet and sour bananas in Poole! I took Fizz and Fuzz out to the park yesterday and they caused quite a stir.They do not yet understand the principle of taking a turn and once they got on a swing they stayed on forever leaving human babies and children crying everywhere. A new pair of dinosaurs have also turned up, Tina Tyrannosaurus and her baby Tyrone. Can you imagine how many bananas they get through in a day! Yes life’s been even madder than usual over the last few weeks but I would not be without any of my new friends and knitting patterns of them all are currently being released.
I was woken up high in my tree this morning by some unusual sounds. A baby was crying,a football was being kicked with my tree as one of the goalposts and there was a general commotion. On investigation I found that a family of orangutans were in the process of moving into the tree next to mine. I tried to ignore them and get back to sleep but the next thing I knew my doorbell was ringing continuously. I climbed down to my front door and there stood the prettiest orangutan I had ever seen in my life. She said she was sorry to bother me so early but could she borrow a cup of bananas as her baby was crying continuously with hunger. I pretended not to have heard the crying, handed over 1kg of bananas that were half price at Monkeyburys this week and before she left she introduced herself as Olive, a single mum with a 3 year old son Oliver and a young baby Olivia.
During the day I peeked out from behind my curtains to watch them settle in to their new neighbourhood. The youngsters certainly had fun playing in the trees. Olive set about making a nest for the night. I decided that I liked my new neighbours and would certainly be friends with them.To be continued…….
I was sat up in my tree knitting a few weeks ago watching Harry Hill’s TV Burp when he announced that he was doing a knitting version of The X Factor. He was launching a competition called The K Factor “So you think you can knit!” FAME at last I thought and I was so excited I fell off my branch. Having composed myself the next day I set about entering this competition.I entered my gorilla suit because lets face it, who else is mad enough to knit one of these? I then entered virtually everything I’ve knitted over the last few years including my celebrity knits Wayne Babooney and Apey Winehouse and sat back and waited for The TV Burp team to phone me. The next week I could hardly watch the programme as I waited for some of my knitted things to be shown but they weren’t. So then I had an amazingly unique idea. I would knit a Harry Hill doll, they would have to show that! My Harry Hill knitted character doll did not get entered that week as my mum died and instead I took it to the funeral instead to cheer up all the kids on such a sad occasion.That weekend I fell off my branch again because there were thousands of knitted Harry Hill toy doll entries. Could people have read my mad monkey mind? Well here is my Harry Hill doll and he’s probably the only one in the country NOT to have appeared on the TV Burp show. We watch the show together and my Harry Hill knitted doll likes to dress up and copy the real Harry Hill. Here he is doing last week’s Tommy Cooper impersonation. We also record our own versions of TV Burp,we particularly enjoyed this version of Which Dinosaur Is Better? There’s only one way to find out .FIGHT! The winner was the triceratops of course and my Harry went for a victory ride. By popular demand I have decided to release the knitting pattern for my Harry Hill doll so you too will now be able to have as much fun as I do watching TV Burp.The knitting pattern allows you to choose whether to make a fully jointed version as seen here or a slightly simpler non-jointed version.Harry is 50 cm tall and his suit, shoes and socks are all removeable so you can see what he looks like completely naked. YUK! To buy a pdf download of this amazingly unique one of a kind harry Hill knitting pattern please click on the celebrity toy knitting patterns page. O.K. so I didn’t win The K Factor this year, there’s always next year! My vote is for Peter the Duck!
I have been contacted by that very famous fashion house Emporio Armonkey and asked to model their new range of gorilla swimwear. I had to do a fashion shoot yesterday down at the beach. At first I found the poses quite hard. but I eventually got the hang of it. Someone actually said I looked quite “sexy”. By the end of the shoot I was really enjoying myself as it was such a change from knitting. My favourite swimsuit was the Baywatch one. Maybe you’ll see me working on Venice Beach one day!
My son Freddy has been visiting for the last few weeks from Australia so I’ve been a bit lazy with my knitting and have been hanging out with him instead.He goes back this Sunday so I’ll be knitting again like crazy next week. I did manage to design 40 madbeaniehat patterns while he was here and I’m amazed at their success. We went to the park yesterday as it was the first sun we had seen here in England for a month! Freddy enjoyed cycling in the park in his new Stanley Starfish beanie but I preferred to just sit and watch him wearing my Spinderella Spider beanie. He had fun feeding the ducks and geese in his Madmonkeyknitter striped beanieand then played in the toy train.We ended up doing all the things that he enjoyed as a young gorilla even though he’s now 24. All in all it was a good day!
HAPPY NEW YEAR and there’s going to be lots of new patterns released over the next few weeks. Christmas is finally over, the turkey’s in the bin and I’ve sobered up so its time to get on with 2010! I’ve been busy designing more beanie hat knitting patterns as they are so popular.I would like to congratulate everyone who purchased my self portrait beanie patterns on their impeccable taste. Here are a few more that have just been released.To purchase a pattern please click on the madbeaniehats page. Madmonkeyknitter’s Snowman Penny Piglet Charlie Chick Flossie Flamingo Nancy Nanny Goat Tracy Triceratops Terrence Teddy. Due to the continuing bad weather in England this winter I’ve been finding it exceptionally cold up in my tree at night so I’ve designed THE BEANIECLAVA! This is a clever little hat that doubles up as a beanie hat AND a balaclava. Here is the plain version but I can assure you that a whole collection of mad ones will be coming soon!
I don’t know whether you noticed but my Christmas tree this year was filled with micro versions of all of my characters and these knitting patterns will be released very soon.The first ones will be tiny microknit patterns for Oscar the baby orangutan, Malcolm Monkey and Chester chimpanzee.They are exact replicas of the original toys but these are only about 6 inches high!The micro knitting patterns are proving popular and the beauty of micro knitting is that it is so cheap.Nothing on the tree cost more than a few pounds to make and you can make these tiny toys just for you for once. I’ve got to go now or I’ll never get all these new patterns typed up and ready for you to buy! Lets hope that 2010 is a prosperous year for all of us. Let’s face it,it must be better than 2009 surely? HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!
I really enjoyed getting ready for Christmas this year as my son Freddy was coming back from Australia for a visit. I put the tree up and decorated it with microknit versions of all my toy designs. I made my Christmas cards and then covered them in glitter as usual. I even dressed up as Santa and came down the chimney on Christmas Eve which really gave the boys a fright. Christmas Day lunch went well despite this being the first time in 30 years that I had to cook the turkey due to my husband’s shoulder injury. As the day went on more booze was drunk, more songs were sung, more instruments were played and more madbeaniehats were worn!
