Stuffing the monkey

Ready knitting, only the stuffing to do. Here, I show, how I do this.

What I use:

• stuffing, wool or some synthetic stuffing.
• Then I use something that is poppengranulaat in Dutch. It is best described plastic rice. You may use real rice instead, but then you should prevent your Jacobus from getting wet. The plastic granules go into the hands, feet, and a bit in the backside of the monkey, the exra weight makes that your monkey will sit more easily and the weight in the hands and feet make the monkey nice and "slungelig"(something like dangly or so, please give me the right word in English).
• Then I use tubular stockinette bandage, the sort that doctors use underneath a plaster, the width of the bandage that I use is 1 - 1,5 inches. This bandage is meant to cover the granules, so that they do not come out through the knitting. Nylon stockings are an alternative to the bandage.
• Finally I use a coffee measure spoon to measure the granules and a wooden stick or pencil to push stuffing into the arms and legs.

Cut of a piece of bandage twice as long as the leg,

fold it and put it with both openings up and the fold down into the leg of the monkey. Use your stick to reach into the leg.

Put granules or rice into the tube (a funnel may be useful) and use you stick to push the granules into the foot. The foot should be filled and there should be some grains here and there in the leg. Stuff the leg with little stuffing, the leg should remain quite flexible.

Stuff the other leg and both arms in the same way. As you can see on the picture on the left, the limbs really hang after this. The open ends of the tubes should come out in the body of the monkey

Firmly stuff the head and neck of the monkey. Let the stuffing protrude from the head via the neck into the body, so that the head does not dangle. Shape the head with your hands to be nice and round. Stuff the shoulders and hips, here let some stuffing protrude from the arm/leg into the body. Now stuff the body, but not too firm. Cut off a piece of tube bandage, put in about twice as much granules as you put in one foot, close the tube and put these granules in the backside of the monkey. If needed, add some more stuffing.





Close the stuffing opening with kitchener stitch.



Stuff the muzzle.Use a pin to fix the middle of the muzzle, look at the position, the muzzle goes down to the neck.



and sew the neck to the head.






You can use a knitting needle to move the stuffing a little bit.



Use 2 pins to find the position of the eyes, look carefully at the picture below.



Use a frim thread to connect the eyes loosely. This thread serves as a child-safety thread. In case the real thread (see below ) breaks, the eyes do not directly come loose.



Now thread a long sturdy (possibly double) string through the eye and thread both ends through a thick long needle.



Stick (is that the right word for what you do with a needle) the needle down through the muzzle to the neck of the monkey. Do the same for the other eye and see to it that all ends come out through the same stitch in the neck.







Connect the strings from both eyes with a single sliding knot. Look your monkey in the face and pull the strings so that the eyes are pulled into the face a little. Now secure the knot, work the ends back into the body of the monkey.



Jacobus is ready and he smiles.