A few weeks ago my three year old son, Jack, asked me to knit him a monster. There's a long backstory involving watching Monster's Inc. and him realizing that not all monsters are scary. He decided that the best way to keep away scary monsters was to have a not-so-scary monster that could protect him. I don't know about you, but I'd never knit a monster before. I had no idea where to start, but I knew I couldn't let Jack down. So, I searched Ravelry and checked with a few knitting friends to see what the best approach is. I kept coming back to Rebecca Danger's patterns. Specifically, The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. Luckily, my local library had a copy and I was able to start Jack's monster right away.


I scoured my stash for monster appropriate yarn and found some Fisherman's wool I dyed a few years ago. Jack told me it was beautiful and I knew we were off to a good start. I opted to make Hugo, since he seemed pretty beginner-monster friendly. The actual knitting wasn't hard and only took a few days to complete. In another lucky coincidence, I had polyfill and white felt (for the mouth) in my crafting closet. So I was able to stuff him and stitch him up as soon as he dried. Yes, I gave Hugo a bath prior to stuffing - it only seemed fair. Jack watched in awe as his monster turned from a flat piece of knitting into, well, a monster. I attached Hugo's arms and added a felt mouth, but didn't have the right buttons for eyes. Jack didn't care. He grabbed Hugo as soon as he was finished (after stopping by every 10 seconds while I was filling him to ask if Hugo could come play yet).

I found some buttons over the weekend, so Hugo finally got his eyes. Even without them, he has been doing a fantastic job of watching over Jack and protecting him from other not-so-nice monsters. I've found him sitting in the reading chair, hanging from the towel bar in the kids' bathroom, in the highchair, on the easel and countless other places over the last week. My favorite place may be right outside Jack's door, keeping guard of the hallway while we sleep. Needless to say, I think I (and Hugo) delivered exactly what Jack wanted.


Project details:
Pattern: Hugo the Couch Potato Monster by Rebecca Danger
Yarn: Hand dyed Lionbrand Fishermen's Wool 
Needle: US 6 (4mm)
Misc: white felt, black 13mm buttons, polyfill