brainylady

Wednesday is Chinese New Year's Eve. We'll be moving from the Year of the Sheep to the Year of the Monkey. What could be better for this transition than a monkey made of wool? There are two free knitting patterns online that I can find:

Sirdar's ITV monkey

Marion's monkey

I also found a very sweet looking commercial monkey puppet here -- if you listen closely, you can hear it saying, "Put my face on one of Kerrie's finger puppers!"

I think the Sheep-Monkey transition is also the perfect moment to make a sock monkey -- from wool socks, of course. Here are some instructions:

Sock monkey tutorial

How to make a sock monkey

Stella Marrs's sock monkey postcard (my friend Rose made the lovely monkey you see there!)

For something completely different, make some monkey origami:

Monkey origami instructions

Pictures of monkey origami (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil)

If you were born in 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, or 1980, you're a Monkey. Apparently you're particularly compatible with Rats, like me and Maggi! Here are a few links to pages where you can learn a bit about the Chinese zodiac, Chinese New Year, and specifically the Year of the Monkey:

Chinese New Year

Year of the Monkey

Chinese enter auspicious Year of the Monkey

We're not going away for the holiday (last year at this time, we were off to India!). I'll have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, and I can't bloody wait. I think it's supposed to be chilly and miserable out, too. I plan to hang out with Billy and Bea and knit, watch movies, drink hot chocolate, read knitting blogs, and catch up on some sleep. Ahh. And I have a request: I'd love it if you leave a comment about your favourite Chinese film, author, artist, food, saying, city -- any anecdote having to do with Chinese culture. (Or ask me a question about Chinese/Taiwanese culture and I'll do my best.) Anything! Here, I'll start:

I think the qipao (chee-pow) is the most elegant and flattering piece of clothing ever; I've been to Chinatowns in Vancouver, Montreal (it's just little), and San Francisco; stinky tofu is seriously one of the worst things I've ever smelled; I love the films of Zhang Yimou (e.g., Raise the Red Lantern); I recommend Jan Wong's books about China; and my favourite Chinese restaurant ever is On Lok on Hastings Street in Vancouver. But if I were to start eating meat again, the first thing I'd want to have is those shopping-mall food-fair sweet-and-sour pork balls! The first complete sentence I learned to say in Mandarin was "Mien li mien yo ro ma?" ("Is there any meat in these noodles?") And did you know that the Chinese equivalent of "wall-to-wall people" is "people mountain, people sea"? OK, now you go.