You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2008.
Living in London without corn tortillas is hard! Most of my diet consisted of corn tortillas and I didn’t even know it. Now my diet consists of pasta, pizza, fried chicken and the occasional fish. Oh man, that’s why I was thrilled to get a package from back home in El Paso, TX! Did I mention I also miss pozole? Where do I find hominy around here!!
The package contained: 8 bags of dried chile de arbol (for super hot salsa), 2 large packs of Mission corn tortillas (!!!) and about a dozen rolls of pink, black and white Omega 100% nylon thread, which Mom bought in Mexico, for crochet (abuelitas must have used this thread back in the day).
Some of Mom’s hand crochet tablecloths…
The chile will last me a while, the corn tortillas have all been eaten (even the broken ones I used to mindlessly discard in the US), but I didn’t really have something in mind for the thread until recently. That is something I will blog about later, though.
All this thinking about what to do with this thread made me think of the amazing tablecloths my Mom crochets with it. They are beautiful pieces of art! I’m so blown away by them and it seems like she finishes them in no time because she’s always working on something new. I have no idea how she does this. She invents most of her patterns and she can replicate pieces just by looking at them…just by looking at magazines written in English, which she can’t understand! Mom is so good; I think crochet is one of her favorite things to do, maybe besides sewing.
These photos were taken in 2002 so, as you can imagine, there are plenty more now!
Pineapples!
Work in progress
Like the unveiling of a spanking new fortune 500 company product, I give you the newest in independent crafting technology, the new and improved collection of Mars Sock Monkeys for the Spring of 2008!
Seattle/London raised Mars Sock Monkeys pictured from L to R: Stella, Frankie, Sheena and Lulu.
Stella and Lulu come with newly designed sweaters, modeled after the ever so popular polo shirt. For these, I chose a short puffy sleeve and non-ribbed finishing to add a feminine touch. They also have a small heart on the left side as opposed to something large taking up the front of the sweater, also to add a delicate touch.
Another new addition to the sock monkey fashion wear are knitted hats, which I learned to make especially for the occasion! I had already been making crocheted hats for people so I thought why not make them for the monkeys as well! The only problem I ran across this was that the crochet pattern didn’t work so well on a small scale because it looked too bulky, that is why I learned to knit them instead. The hat made for Stella has a crocheted flower attached to the side and the other made for Frankie sports the cutest yellow puffy pom-pom I’ve ever made!
Stella comes with a polo style, puffy short sleeve light pink and grey sweater with small heart design and same color beanie with flower. For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com.
These are the best sock monkeys I’ve done so far and I must say that my knitting skills have improved quite a bit since I made my very first monkeys last year. The construction hasn’t changed all that much (it is a sock made monkey after all), except that I’ve switched from sewing with a cotton thread to a more elastic invisible thread and I’ve replaced the plastic eye backings to metal since the plastic ones were tearing from the pressure of the front eye piece. Anyway those are all minor details, but I guess you could say that it has improved the quality of the product. You could almost even say that these monkeys are indestructible 
Frankie comes with a long sleeve brown and yellow sweater with duckie design and same color beanie with pom-pom. For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!
I’m going to keep the amount of time it took to make these four monkeys including “jumpers” a secret because it’s still a process being worked out. The most I can say is that I was right on schedule and I got photos and marketing done within my specified amount of time. No wonder I’m beat! Next up is more painting and digital drawing. Yay!
Shenna comes with a striped sleeve hooded black and purple sweater with a skull and crossbones design. Party hat included! For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!
If you would like to adopt one or ALL of my cuddly monkeys, Stella, Frankie, Sheena and Lulu are for sale at Maribel Made DaWanda and Maribel Made Etsy.
Lulu comes with a polo style, puffy short sleeve hot pink and brown hooded sweater with small heart design. For sale at, Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!
See other Mars Sock Monkey collections:
Summer 2008
For more info on my exclusive line of sock monkeys see, Sock monkeys + knitted sweaters = Mars Sock Monkeys.
Toys, original and manipulated photos are copyright Maribel Castellanos.
