Finishing Freak, Plus Assembly Line Sock Monkey Making

October 19th, 2007

Friday morning dawns (and we snooze along for many hours) until it is a reasonable time to get up on another day off work and school. I am filled with sock-monkey fever, and itching to get back at it, but my husband has taken the day off work as well, and we planned to do something fun as a family.

It is gray and rainy again today. The boys, when queried, say it sounds like fun to just stay home and play together – a little monkey-making, a little dart-gaming, a little Madden 07. It is agreed. AND, there is a vociferous ordering of monkeys between the two boys. They need a whole team to play in the MFL (now a new popular term in our house) as well as two coaches. But soon, the pressure on me is relieved when they find they can attach the Velcro stick-ons I got to their existing stuffed animals, and have Bananas lead the way. This is good. I am pretty sure it will take me the better part of the day to give Freak some limbs, and create one new sock monkey for each of them (given that the domestic chores just kind of continue on relentlessly).

My first realization about the motivation of monkey-doll-making women in the early 20th century. Housework is boring and relentless (no doubt much more so without the modern conveniences). Making monkey-dolls allows one to exercise her creativity, while ostensibly meeting the needs of the family (kids need toys to play with!) And this gives you the motivation to hurry through your chores to make some time to do the fun stuff!

OK. To get things moving, I whip out two socks and do the fast part – a couple of seams for the legs. My sons stuff the torsos, and then they are able to go on their way while I work on the appendages. Today is assembly-line kind of stuff. Yesterday, I learned the basics of making the monkey. Today I will focus on making the monkey efficiently.

But first, I feel an obligation to Freak. There is one thing about Freak I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog. Since I had sewn his legs on the wrong half of the sock, the head-area was open on top. Also, late in the day yesterday, I had run out to Michael’s to get some accessory-type stuff, and thought I’d buy the “Red Knitting Yarn” mentioned in the instructions. I thought Freak was an ideal candidate for adding monkey hair.

Again, my lack of crafting experience comes in to play here. I had no idea how one fixes the yarn to the head. So, I just tried something. I unwound a bunch of yarn and looped it around my hand in a loop-length of approximately how long I wanted the hair to be. Then, I jammed this into the opening (sock inside out) so the length was going down into the sock. I had to kind of spread things around to make it even. Then, I just seamed across the top in a half circle to get a rounded head, and flipped it back right-side out. Freak was then stuffed, crotch-closed and set aside. I put a rubber band around the hair to kind of hold it out of the way and avoid it getting tangled. The boys thought that looked cool.

So, today, the first job was to finish Freak. Here are the things I learned from finishing Freak:

· I wanted to try sewing on a Pom-Pom to the toes. (My boys refused that on their monkeys, but Freak was MINE). Freak has a bit of a cloven hoof, from having the toe of the sock for his legs, so the pom-pom was a little ominous-looking, rather than festive. What I did to attach these (in the absence of knowledge) was to take a couple of stitches through the tip of the monkey foot, for anchoring, then push the needle through the middle of the pom pom, where it seemed to have some substance. There isn’t a lot of accuracy possible here, as you have to push that baby pretty hard, so I was worried I was just going to have ugly-looking threads all over, but these somehow disappeared as well, so that was very cool. (I suppose when you pull the stitch tight, it pulls to the bottom of the circle of substance, and the little cloud of pom hides it???)
· I tried embroidering Freak’s mouth before sewing it on to the torso. Don’t do that. It just looks dumb. I later re-embroidered it after it was attached and stuffed. You get a nicer 3-D effect. Freak does have arched eyebrows, which give him a knowing air, that I like, and I bit of world-weariness. I have a couple of photos here of completed sock monkeys, and they have slightly center-lifted, one-slash eyebrows. Those look friendly. Of course, there’s the angry eyes opposite, which I haven’t yet tried, but I’m sure would have an evil effect. Later in the day, I tried a straight across one-line eyebrow. I’m sorry to say that it looks a bit Pyscho, which is what we ended up naming the monkey. But, more on that later.
· The biggest experiment with Freak was the hair. I finger-combed it out, for even disbursement. Then, I cut the looped ends to make it more hair-like. Probably, a nice, even trim, and perhaps a stitch or two to fasten in place, would have given a debonair look. I didn’t do that. I left it all different lengths (for wildness) and did not fasten it down (as he seemed an ideal candidate to want to do some Jack-Black-like head rolls while jamming on the guitar, and I wanted the hair to flow freely, in that event). I then pulled three yarns from each side in front of the ears and made a tight, little braid on each side. I tied off the ends with itself and trimmed the loose yarns. This looks very cool. Sometime I will try braiding the whole head in tight-little braids for a dreadlock look, which sound potentially very becoming to a monkey with arched brows. Bottom line: Hair is fun for the maker. Seemed to add no value for my sons, however. Children more interested in their grooming might feel differently.

And next was the finishing of the other two monkeys. They would become Psycho and Coach. There were very few creative learnings on these two monkeys, other than the importance of face and ear placement to the general character of the monkey. However, I did have some process learnings:

If you wanted to do this in bulk (say you are making Christmas presents for your 15 nieces and nephews, like I will be – we’re Catholic), I would separate the tasks into 1) initial-seaming, 2) cutting, 3) stuffing, 4) closing (crotch and ends of arms, tails) and 5) finishing. Finishing could be further separated out into limb-attachment and facial attachment/embroidery.
Initial seaming is quick, easy and pleasant. This would be a good job to farm out to an older child you are teaching to sew.
Cutting requires a small amount of skill, as the seams are hard to see and it is easy to cut into them. However, a diligent or fastidious child could probably do this. Turning the fabric inside out can be done as part of this task as well.
Stuffing is a good task for school-age children. I did notice that stuffing does determine some of the character of the monkey. My son really beefed up Coach, which is probably appropriate to a football-coach. But the over-stuffing makes him look a bit stupid, as he is thick-necked, pot-bellied and fat-thighed, but that might just be me, given that those are all the evils I fight against in my own body.
Also, you might find that giving the stuffing task to a child requires some extra stitching up in the crotch area, as too much pull on the fabric makes the yarns separate. I find the stitching up kind of pleasant work. Is this what women used to do when they “darned” the socks? That is a lost art in my family for at least the last three generations.
I did the closing (except crotches) of all the parts, and then set them aside with the unclosed torsos. I then found I had a basket-full of work that could be done in any well-lit, comfie part of the house while I participated peripherally in the general chaos of my family. This part I picture being like the pioneer woman in the rocking chair in front of the fire at night with her family (who are sharpening knives and reading books and telling stories, or some such things). For my part, I was on a sofa in the basement while my boys and husband played Madden 07, Dart Tag and Monkey League Football. I really enjoyed it. All I needed was the basket of body parts, a spool of thread and a skein of embroidery yarn, and my pin cushion, with the requisite pins and needles already stuck in. (Keep in mind that I am usually the type to be hidden away from the noise with a book in hand, or hovering over my laptop in my home office.)