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I just added two new sock monkeys to my Mars Sock Monkey album on flickr. Abigail the plaid monkey is a custom sock monkey. The owl on her sweater was inspired from a photo of a cute USB owl! I had fun making the pom-pom hat since I hadn’t made one in a while. Baby Cassie comes in a pink and yellow Heart Hoodie. She’s the first baby sock monkey to wear one! These and Star Hoodies come standard on all Mars Sock Monkeys. :)
I also had whole new settings to work with for Abigail and Cassie’s photos. Not to mention record breaking 100 degree weather! For the sweaters there’s two photos showing parts of the knitting process. I use the mattress stitch and kitchener stitch to seam up the hood pieces shown in the pink hoodie photo. The owl design on Abigail’s sweater is knit in fair isle.
Abigail and Baby Cassie Mars Sock Monkeys
Cassie’s Heart Hoodie
Abigail’s Owl Sweater and pom-pom hat
Tags: abigail, baby, cassie, fair isle, flickr, heart, hoodie, kitchener, knitting, maribelmade, mars, mattess, monkey, owl photo, pinl, process, sock, star, stitch, usb, weather
This is the first time I’ve made a sweater for a sock monkey that wasn’t one of my own. Finnoola Peach came from a sock monkey kit created by Cary Lane from Monkey Sock Monkey. It’s a great idea! Maribel Made is also considering making sock monkey kits for Mars Sock Monkeys! I left London with this idea so there’s details to be worked out still, but I’m really excited about the possibility. I think of my new motto as: Dressing Sock Monkeys One at a Time. :)
Sock monkey sweaters come with a heart or star design; custom sweaters and other accessories like hats and scarfs are also available. Message me if you’re interested in clothing for your sock monkey!
Tags: Cary Lane, clothing, custom, finnoola, heart, kit, monkey, Peach, sock, star, sweater
Remember Samantha? Well Evelyn is her twin sister. Good not evil sister. They are both good actually. Very good! I’m back to working on baby sock monkeys. I finished Mauricio’s sweater today (it’s so little!) and I’m going to start making his hat. Contemplating whether to use yarn or fabric though. Maybe fabric would be a nice change. I found a pattern for a bucket hat I’ll probably use as a guide.
Evelyn Mars Sock Monkey
Tags: Add new tag, evelyn, heart, hoodie, knit, maribel made, mars, monkey, pink, samantha, sister, sock, stripes, twin, yellow
I’m now into my fourth week of using Twitter and I’m up to 175 @maribelmade followers! I’m close to following 300 people and I’ve already reached a point where I can no longer keep up with my feed as much as I’d like. This is making me sad, so I think I’m going to start using TweetDeck to categorize all my content.
I’ve made a lot of new friends in the past three weeks and I thank these new friends for all the yummy content they feed me on a regular basis. In turn, I present some of this neat content to you in a weekly blog post I call Maribel Made Twit Finds. I hope you enjoy the goodies. :)
This week’s Twit Finds:
- Handstitched Cupcake Purse tutorial by paper-and-string - These little zipper pouches are lovely! I need to get my hands on some pretty felt. (via @craft)
- Custom Baby Sweater by HandKnitHugs - I love the idea of customizing a baby’s sweater with an initial. I made one for sock monkey Edwin not too long ago. (via @HandknitHugs)
- Stuffed Monster Gallery by Anne Karsten - A collection of stuffed monsters based on toys drawn by 4th and 5th grade students. Kids learning about product development at such an early age is quite a concept! (@crafts)
- monito-de-montte-copia by Alberto Montt - Twittering about monitos, PinkBonsai sent me this beautiful one. (@PinkBonsai)
- Brain and Heart by The Heart of Papercuts - Some of the most beautiful papercuts I’ve seen. These papercuts are made by Elsa Mora. Her work can be purchased at Three Graces Gallery. Added to wishlist. (via @TommmyKane)
- Dandy Victorian Peacock Cameo Corset by Louis Black Designs - I was breathless when I saw this gorgeous corset! It’s so elegantly gothic. Also in my wishlist. ;) (via @DeadpanAlley)
See you again next week!
Tags: Alberto Montt, anne karsten, baby, brain, cameo, corset, craft, cupcake, custom, development, Elsa Mora, finds, gallery, handknithugs, heart, Louis Black Designs, monito, monter, paper-and-string, papercuts, peacock, pouch, product, purse, stuffed, sweater, twit, twitter, vistorian, zipper
Here’s the latest Mars Sock Monkey hooded sweater I recently made for Monica. These hoodies are great to make. I get to have fun with color combination and of course the Kitchener stitch to join the top of the hood pieces.
Mars Sock Monkeys come standard with a hoodie, but can also wear a hat or a scarf. Custom Mars Sock Monkeys can wear any type of sweater or design imaginable like these lucky monkeys. :)
Mars Sock Monkey hooded sweater with heart
Below is the cable vest sweater that Kristjen wears. It’s made in different colors from Henry and William’s to suit Kristjen’s Rubik Cube socks better. I like making this sweater too because the cables make it fun.
These cables are composed of 4 columns of stitches. Every 4 rows I knit the 2 stiches in the back of the column first, placing the 2 stitches in the front on a cable holder, then I put these back on the regular needle and knit them after. I repeat this at every twist of the cable. I know, easier said than done, but it’s actually not that hard. These are easy cables compared to these by Jenna. They are Beautiful!
Monkey cable vest sweater
Tags: cable, clothing, color, custom, fashion, hat, heart, holder, hood, hoodie, mars, monkey, scarf, sock, standard, stitch, sweater, vest
She’s a rainbow, just like the song! Monica Mars Sock Monkey was made from a rainbow sock and believe it or not, she’s the first true rainbow sock monkey I’ve made. Umm, you could say she was a bit of a challenge because I had to complement her bold colors with a soft sweater.
I’m now finding that I also have to do certain things to make the monkeys look like either boys or girls. For instance if it’s a boy I’d make it a bigger mouth, maybe larger ears and separate the eyes a little bit. For a girl monkey I would do the opposite, of course following up with right boy and girl colors. It’s so much fun! It’s like playing Frankenstein! Mu ha ha ha. Or does he not make that sound.
Monica Mars Sock Monkey
Monica playing in the Sun
Tags: bold, boy, gender, girl, heart, hoodie, knitted, made, maribel, maribelmade, mars, monkey, rainbow, sex, sock, sweater
The much anticipated Knit Ring is here! These soft knitted rings adorned with sparkly and unique buttons for your fingers are another way to layer up this winter. They are snugly, warm and at their prize they make great gifts for any girl on your holiday gift list! Keep your fingers warm while looking fashionable this season. :)
Maribel Made Knit Rings are available for sale on maribel.etsy.com.
Vivienne Westwood inspired Heart Jewel Knit Rings
Wooden Heart Knit Rings
Wooden Star Knit Rings
Rivoli Stone and Glacier Knit Rings
Assorted Button Knit Rings
The next item for sale in my wishlist are neck cozies, inspired by Ai Yazawa’s Misato character in her fabulous manga NANA! Misato is the Black Stones’ number one fan and later the band’s manager. She and the rest of the NANA cast have amazing fashion sense! This manga is ace for all my fashion inspiration. Could it be a coincidence that all their jewelery is Vivienne Westwood? Too cool!!
Tags: black, blue, fashion, gift, glacier, heart, inspired, jewel, jewelery, jumbo, knit, made, manga, maribel, misato, nana, pink, purple, rings, rivoli, season, snugly, soft, sparkly, stone, vivienne, warm, westwood, white, winter, wooden, yazawa
The Mars Sock Monkey summer collection is finally here! Say hello to Robert, Mona, William, Eileen and Ulysses!
Inspired by some world renowned graffiti art, the newest monkeys are representative of the vibe and culture that buzzes in the streets of East London. Here the neighborhoods are splashed with innovative street art and people with styles and fashions that are something out of this world…or the 80s, 90s, and even 70s. With bright colorful patches of paint, the streets seem to come alive. East London is why the Mars Sock Monkey summer batch is bright, funky and as colorful as the art displayed on the city walls.
These new monkeys sport some innovative knitting techniques in terms of doll fashion. In addition to the use of the popular polo style sweater design, I’ve added a style of knitted fabric which has a blended gradient color effect, mixing stiches of different yarn colors together gradually to become what I call the “gradient sweater”.
Another style of knitting new to the collection includes cables, which are the strands of braided fabric that run up and down winter sweaters to thicken and add a decorative touch. From this fabric, I created an outfit based on the v-neck sweater vest and undershirt combination. I’ve combined it with the traditional European hat, the flat cap (or golf cap), so popularly worn in England. Very cute on a sock monkey by the way ;)
The final contribution to sock monkey fashion wear is a cap with a brim done in the same style as the gradient sweater…simply put a baseball cap!
New finishing touches include opposite color edging on the sleeves, sweater and hood, some ribbon and a big heart pattern. Making their return from previous monkeys are rib knit edging, puffy short sleeves (for summer!), hoods, beanie with pom-pom, a pocket pouch and original star design from the very first days of the Mars Sock Monkey.
I’m really looking forward to making the next group of sock monkeys…hopefully there will be some surprises and new innovations. The next batch will be inspired by an interesting piece of the London nightlife. Stay tuned for the Fall MSM Collection!!
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Each sock monkey from the Summer 2008 Collection is for sale at Etsy and DaWanda. If you’re interested in a custom order, please email me at 
.
To view the full photostream, please visit the flickr feed. Please note that no actual monkeys were used in the capture of the graffiti art, so they are perfectly clean and in top-notch condition. :)
I now present the Mars Sock Monkey Summer 2008 Collection!
Robert Mars Sock Monkey
Robert comes with a newly designed short sleeve gradient sweater with hoodie and pocket pouch in light/dark purple and green. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.
Mona Mars Sock Monkey
Mona is dressed with a short sleeve hot pink and black sweater with star design and matching color beanie with pom-pom. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.
William Mars Sock Monkey
William sports a newly designed green cable vest sweater with brown bow and white undershirt. He also sports a lovely matching flat cap. True to the Englishman style! For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.
Eileen Mars Sock Monkey
Eileen wears a striped short sleeve hot pink and bright yellow sweater with hoodie and heart design. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.
Ulysses Mars Sock Monkey
Ulysses comes with a short sleeve light yellow/hot pink gradient sweater and matching sports cap with brim…baseball cap! For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.
Graffiti art is not associated with Maribel Made and belong to its respective owners (City of London and graffiti artists). A good reference to graffiti artist’s names can be found here.
See the previous MSM collection:
Spring 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.
Tags: 2008, animal, art, attire, baseball cap, beanie, brim, cap, clothes, clothing, collection, collectors, colorful, cute, east, england, etsy, fashion, flat cap, funky, golf cap, gradient, graffiti, heart, hood, hoodie, jumper, kawai, knit, knitted, london, made, maribel, mars, monkey, pet, pom pom, sale, shop, signature, sock, star, stuffed, summer, sweater, toy, undershirt, vest, vibrant
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.
Tags: adults, animal, baby, black, brown, children, craft, crossbones, cute, doll, duckie, flower, hat, heart, hood, hoodie, hot, indie, jumper, knit, knitted, mars, monkey, pink, polo, product, purple, skull, sock, socks, striped, stuffed, sweater, toy, unveiling, yellow
