Sock monkey

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A sock monkey is a toy made from socks fashioned in the likeness of a monkey. These stuffed animals are a fixture of folk art and kitsch in the culture of the United States and the culture of Canada.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Developments 3 Sock monkeys today 3.1 Sock Monkey Madness Festival 4 In popular culture 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Origins

The sock monkey's most direct predecessors originated in the Victorian era, when the craze for imitation stuffed animals swept from Europe into North America and met the burgeoning Arts and Crafts Movement. Mothers there took to sewing stuffed animals as toys to comfort their children, and, as tales of the Scramble for Africa increased the public's familiarity with exotic species, monkey toys soon became a fixture of American nurseries. However, these early stuffed monkeys were not necessarily made from socks, and also lacked the characteristic red lips of the sock monkeys popular today.

John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented the sock-knitting machine in 1869, and began manufacturing work socks in Rockford, Illinois in 1890.^[1] The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to its product. In the early years, the red-heeled sock was marketed as "De-Tec-Tip". Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without seams in the heel. These seamless work socks were so popular that the market was soon flooded with imitators, and socks of this type were known under the generic term "Rockfords". Nelson Knitting added the red heel "de-tec-tip" to assure its customers that they were buying "original Rockfords". This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth. During the Great Depression, American mothers first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.^[1]

[edit] Developments

Around 1951, the Nelson Knitting company discovered that their socks were being used to make monkey dolls. In 1953, Nelson Knitting became involved in a dispute over the design patent on the sock monkey pattern. They were awarded the patent in 1955, and began including the pattern with every pair of socks. The sock monkey doll was then used in promotional campaigns celebrating the widespread application of their product by inventive homemakers in the field of monkey manufacturing.

In 1958, the "scrap-craft" magazine Pack-O-Fun published "How to Make Sock Toys", a guide to making different sock animals and dolls with red heeled socks. Frequently cited as being their most popular book ever, this pamphlet went through multiple printings and was being produced in new editions up until the mid-1980s.

The Nelson Knitting Company was acquired in 1992 by Fox River Mills, and the original brown heather, Red Heel monkey sock is still in production by Fox River Mills. A distinctive change in the red-heeled sock design distinguishes monkeys made with Fox River Mills socks from Nelson Knitting Company socks. Fox River heels are more uniformly ovular, without the end points that gave Nelson Knitting-made sock monkeys their smiles or frowns.

[edit] Sock monkeys today

Sock monkeys remain a popular toy to this day, though not as much so as teddy bears. Most vintage sock monkeys found today are no older than the late 1950s, and many date from the 1970s. A number of methods for dating sock monkeys have been debated by collectors, including the shape of the red heel, the tightness of the weave, the style of clothing worn, and other features. However, since sock monkeys are home-made rather than mass-manufactured, it is extremely difficult to accurately date any particular monkey. Mass-manufactured "Sock Monkey" dolls are available but they are not made from stockings but from knit cloth: the red mouth is a separate piece of cloth cut and sewn in.

[edit] Sock Monkey Madness Festival

In 2005, the first "Sock Monkey Madness Festival" was held at the Midway Village & Museum Center in Rockford, Illinois.

The continued popularity of the sock monkey encouraged the city of Rockford, Illinois to embrace the doll as a part of its history. In 2005, Midway Village Center in Rockford held its first "Sock Monkey Madness Festival", while simultaneously opening an exhibit highlighting the industrial, legal, and creative history of the Nelson red heel sock and the sock monkey. The festival has since become an annual event and will take place on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, in 2009. The event draws nearly 1,500 individuals and continues to grow in attendance each year. An original one-of-a-kind event, Sock Monkey Madness Festival, will return as a unique celebration of Rockford’s past by highlighting its knitting industry and boom of the stuffed sock toy which continues as a large part of America’s pop culture from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 7 and March 8, at Midway Village Museum, 6799 Guilford Road, Rockford.

At the family festival, visitors to Midway Village Museum have the opportunity to use their own talents and imagination to create a Sock Monkey. Attractions at the event also include: an exhibit featuring the local history of the knitting industry, the creation of the sock monkey, sock monkey workshops, book signings, a Miss Sockford talent contest, medical check-ups for sock monkeys and a film festival. The museum store will also sell locally crafted sock monkeys and accessories, and themed out-of-the ordinary merchandise.

[edit] In popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2009)

• In the 1994 film Cabin Boy, David Letterman portrays old Salt in Fishing Village who offers to sell Chris Elliott's Nathaniel a sock monkey by asking, "Would you like to buy a monkey?"^[2]
• In 1996, Tim the sock monkey became the first monkey with his own web site, hosting a one page site that eventually evolved into thebigt.com.
• The alternative comic Sock Monkey by Tony Millionaire, which began publication in 1998, features a sock monkey named Uncle Gabby as its protagonist.^[3]
• In 1998, Barbara Kingsolver published the novel The Poisonwood Bible. In the novel appears a "monkey sock monkey" named "Saint Matthew," a toy of narrator Ruth May.^[4]
• In 2001, the popular ITV Digital advert campaign featured Johnny Vegas and a knitted sock monkey named Monkey. The character was used again in 2007 to advertise PG Tips tea.^[5]
• The 2002 book Sock Monkeys: 200 out of 1,863 featured photographs by Arne Svenson of vintage sock monkeys from the extensive collection of Ron Warren.^[6] These portrait studies became the basis of exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo, and were featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and on CNN.
• Starting in 2003, Cece Bell wrote, illustrated, and published a series of children's books about sock monkeys.
• A sock monkey named Dickie narrates the 2004 novel Sock (ISBN 0-312-32805-2) by Penn Jillette.
• A 2004 film short by puppet filmmaker Justin Bastard Sane explores The Secret Lives of Sock Monkeys.^[7]
• In 2005 the sitcom How I Met Your Mother featured sock monkeys prominently in the fourth episode, entitled "Return of the Shirt." A giant sock monkey is offered as compensation by Ted for dumping a girl (who collects sock monkeys) on her birthday.
• In 2005, artist Mandy Jouan created Buttons, a 15 foot tall sock monkey.
• In 2005, Dee Lindner, a sock monkey doll designer, artist, and photographer, published Monkey Love.^[8] She would later publish another book titled Friends Knock Your Socks Off.^[9]
• In 2006, Viking Studio published Sock Monkey Dreams by Whitney Shroyer, Letitia Walker, with photographs by Michael Traister.^[10] Sock Monkey Dreams chronicles the daily life of sock monkeys at the Red Heel Monkey Shelter. In 2007, the creative team launched the YouTube channel Sock Monkey Dreams TV.^[11]
• In 2007, In My Own Dream Studio published, Everything Coming Up Sock Monkeys by B. K. Connelly, which is a comprehensive look at the art, history and business of the American sock monkey.^[12]
• In 2007, the Christmas special episode of Robot Chicken featured a production logo that shows the Stoopid Monkey in bed with a sock monkey.
• In 2007, a Mandate Pictures film Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium included a sock monkey character.^[13] The sock monkey in the film was created by Ciara Brennan, a Toronto-based Sock monkey maker.
• In 2008, an episode of the Fairly Odd Parents featured Timmy's dad quitting his job to become a sock monkey sales man (which fails horribley because they do not do anything). Several boxes of sock monkies are shown frequently throughout the spide.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Three Sock Monkey Patterns - Free instructions on making different types of Sock Monkeys.
• Sock Monkey Plans - Instructions For Making The Red-Heel Sock Monkey Toy
• Sock Monkey Dreams - links to modern monkey makers, monkey history, photographic examples of vintage sock monkeys
• Sock Monkey Craft Project Instructions - Step by step directions with photographs. Very easy to understand.