King Kong gloves and a shop window full of monkeys

I love monkeys, gorillas, apes and any sort of primate.  In fact, I have a large collection of them - soft toys, ceramics, such as monkey-shaped teapots, cups and plates decorated with monkeys and a plastic Kong Kong-shaped water-drinking bottle - but not the real thing!

My design of King Kong's face and part of the Empire State Building features on a pair of fingerless mitts and the PDF knitting pattern is available from my store on Ravelry

King Kong's face and the Empire State Building on a pair of hand knitted fingerless mitts

I have been to New York several times in the past and on one of my trips came across this shop window display.  Of course, I had to take a photograph of it!

New York shop window full of toy monkeys and bananas

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics

Pansy hand knits - I love pansies

 I love pansies and have used them as inspiration in the past for intarsia hand knits.

Pansy patterned hand knitted cotton bolero

I am not growing any of my own pansies at the moment, so have taken the following photograph from the internet.

The following photographs show various pansy designs on vintage hand knitted cardigans and sweaters from around the early 2000's.

Pansy and cable patchwork squares on hand knitted cardigan

Pansy and rose intarsia hand knit sweater

Cream Pansy hand knitted wool sweater

Pansy and Cable hand knitted wool cardigan

Pansy cashmere hand knitted long gloves

I still love pansies and have designed a knitting pattern for a pair of fingerless gloves with pansies on the fronts.  The PDF pattern is available from TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Pansy fingerless mitts

There is also a pattern available for a matching scarf that is covered with pansies.  This is also available from the TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Hand knit black cashmere scarf covered with pansies

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics