20 May
Finished! Wheeeeeeee!

I followed the pattern fairly closely, except for:

• The stripes on the body and limbs. I made the head first, then moved onto the body and realised I was going to run out of dark brown yarn, so I made the lighter stripes wider. I was still playing yarn chicken on the last leg, but I finished with just a smidge of the dark colour left!

• The shape of the tree. This was also a yarn shortage. I found I had to use two strands to make the loop stitches as plush and dense as I wanted, and therefore it ate up length like a hungry bear :) So I ran a little short and my tree is more dome shaped than the round ball of the original, but to be honest I actually prefer that as I think it’s a little more natural. You know, natural for a fantasy flora-fauna-hybrid-monkey-tree!

My favourite part of the whole thing was watching the tree come to life as I attached the apples.

This is a really fun pattern, it was well written with no errors and I enjoyed working it. Highly recommended - just buy a bit more yarn than I did :D

15 May
This little guy is so stinking cute, I bought the pattern months ago and finally have yarn in the right shades to make it! I started this morning; so far I’ve made the head, face, ears, and I’m working on the lovely loop stitch tree.

I’m using a 3.5mm hook, which is rather small for this yarn, but I want to make sure the stuffing doesn’t show, even on the darker colours. Gappy amigurumi is a pet peeve of mine :)