Cute little monkey! She/he (I haven't decided which yet) turned out really well but I had to rewrite most of the pattern in order to use the most important amigurumi crochet technique - the magic circle.
Reading through a pattern before I start working allows me to get an idea of how the project is going to be put together and to interpret any directions I may not understand. The instructions for this pattern were clear and easy to follow but I immediately noticed that it did not use the magic circle to start any of the pieces. The magic circle is a clean way to start crocheting in a circle and is the preferred method used in amigurumi. Even worse, the instructions for the arms, legs and body started at the widest areas and ended by narrowing to a few stitches which were finished off by gathering them together. You can never ever make gathered crochet stitches look as neat and clean as starting with a magic circle.
So before I started crocheting the Itty Bitty Monkey I went through the entire pattern and rewrote the necessary sections to start with a magic circle.
The ears and tail were both fine as written and needed no change. The head and snout directions were also fine as written but just needed to start with the magic circle. The arms, legs and body patterns had to be completely rewritten because starting with a magic circle meant the pieces were now being worked in the opposite direction from the written pattern.
The pattern book Itty Bitty Animals By Sheila Leslie is available at Annie's ePatterns Central and my Ravelry project page for the Itty Bitty Monkey is here.
The Itty Bitty Monkey is just the thing for this internet meme!
Ravelry Project Page - Baby Hat
