A sock monkey is a stuffed toy made from socks fashioned in the likeness of a monkey. These stuffed animals are a mixture of folk art and kitsch in the cultures of the United States [1] and Canada. The typical sock monkey is brown and white with extra long limbs, a long tail and bright red lips. The animal may be adorned with additional ornamentation on its head or around its neck. The character has become part of popular culture and can be found in comic books and art.
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. Craft makers began sewing stuffed animals as toys to comfort 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. Tales like Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and Just So Stories inspired crafters to create toys that depicted exotic animals, [2] 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 1868, and began knitting socks on an automatic machine in Rockford, Illinois as early as 1870. On September 15, 1880, the Nelson Knitting Company formed, producing "Celebrated Rockford Seamless Hosiery", and selling them under the name of the "Nelson Sock".
John Nelson's son Franklin created a machine that knitted a sock without seams in the heel. The original machine required workers to sew every seam at the heel. The seamless sock saved time and labor costs and it became so popular, companies began to imitate his idea. [2] 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".
The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks, known today as the "Rockford Red Heel", emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademark red heel to its product. In 1932, advertising executive Howard Monk came up with an idea to change the heel of the brown sock from white to red. The red heeled sock was marketed as "de-tec-tip". [2] Nelson Knitting added the red heel "De-Tec-Tip" to assure its customers that they were buying "original Rockfords" as opposed to the generic "Rockfords". This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth and during the Great Depression, American crafters first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.
In 1953, a woman named Helen Cooke received the patent for sock monkeys. She sued a man named Stanley Levy because he sold sock monkeys but they were not the same design as hers. Levy contacted the Nelson Knitting Company hoping that they would declare the patent invalid. The company knew that people had been making dolls for the last two years, so they gathered up all the dolls that had been made the past two years so that they could have evidence proving that Helen Cooke should not have the patent. One of the most important pieces of evidence was a testimony and a doll made in February 1951 by a lady named Grace Wingent. She was a resident of Rockford and she had made a doll for her grandson. Helen Cooke settled the case against Stanley Levy when she was shown all the evidence that had been collected against her. She decided to sell the patent to the Nelson Knitting Company for $750. The company also paid other women for the rights to the doll including a woman in Tennessee who was paid $1000. Rockford, Illinois became the "home of the sock monkey." [3]
Sock monkeys remain a popular icon and are popular with all ages. [4] They now come in different styles, such as "birthday-themed", different colors, and even electronic ones that sing up-to-date pop songs. Most vintage red-heel sock monkeys found today are no older than the late 1950s, and many date from the 1970s.
A number of methods exist for dating red-heel sock monkeys, including the colors, shape of the red heel (elongated oval or swing), the amount of cream color in the red-heel and toe areas, sock seams, and interior sock content. [4]
The term "vintage" red-heel sock monkeys is typically relegated to sock monkeys made from red-heel socks knitted by the Nelson Knitting Company and from similar socks knitted with red-heels by other companies in the same time period. The term "modern" red-heel sock monkeys is normally relegated to sock monkey dolls created after Fox River Mills, Inc. acquired the Nelson Knitting Company in 1992. [4]
Homemade red-heel sock monkey dolls usually have unique faces and body characteristics and are considered one-of-a-kind. Sock monkey dolls are also mass-manufactured in the marketplace. Sock monkey dolls mass-manufactured by a company normally all have the same face and body characteristics. Not all sock monkey dolls are created from red-heel socks. A 2015 book shows that more colorful sock monkeys have become a trend, such as monkeys made from socks with multicolored striped or polka dot patterns, and monkeys made from mismatched socks. [4]
People's love for sock monkeys has made the toys the center of many special occasions: trips, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and graduations, with their images now being used in photography, books, bookmarks, journals, greeting cards, jewelry, quilting, baking, sewing, commercials and movies. [4]
Sock monkeys are found in literature: gift books like Monkey Love, [5] and Friends Knock Your Socks Off; [6] the children's novel The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea; [7] craft books such as Sew Cute and Collectible Sock Monkeys; [8] and they can be seen in Tony Millionaire's graphic novel Sock Monkey , in which a sock monkey doll is the main character. [9] There is a film adaptation of Millionaire's comic currently in the works. [10] They are also featured in the cover art for the 1992 alternative rock album Dirty by Sonic Youth.
One reason why sock monkeys are popular is that sock monkeys are said to be good luck charms, and as a result, people offer sock monkeys as gifts. Sock monkeys have been given to patients in hospitals as a symbol of a quick recovery. They have been given to employees to relieve stress and sock monkeys have been sent to soldiers overseas to relieve homesickness. [11]
In February 2015, Jody Lewis of Bridgwater, Somerset UK, made the official Guinness world record for largest sock monkey made from individual socks. The sock monkey stands at 10 feet 5.59 inches. [12]
The city of Rockford, Illinois, embraces the doll as part of its history. In 2005, Midway Village Museum in Rockford held its first "Sock Monkey Madness Festival", where sock monkey fans could view an exhibit highlighting the industrial, legal, and creative history of the Nelson red-heel sock and the sock monkey. In 2009, the annual Sock Monkey Madness Festival was awarded a national Leadership in History Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History for excellence in educational programming.
The Sock Monkey Madness Festival also includes the original sock monkey that helped the Nelson Knitting Company win the patent and obtain the title “Home of the Sock Monkey.” Additionally, there is a 7-foot-2-inch sock monkey named "Nelson" (he acquired his namesake after the founder of the factory, John Nelson). Nelson, the super-sized sock monkey mascot created by author/crafter Dee Lindner was sewn out of 44 Rockford red-heeled socks. [3] Furthermore, the festival is kid friendly and has unique attractions such as the “Sockford General Hospital”. The hospital is a “crafty clinic” that repairs sock monkeys if they require any care. Volunteers dress as nurses and fix any button eyes that fall off, torn mouths, or do any other sewing that is necessary. [13]
Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabric, archaeologists believe Stone Age people across Europe and Asia sewed fur and leather clothing using bone, antler or ivory sewing-needles and "thread" made of various animal body parts including sinew, catgut, and veins.
Stockings are close-fitting, variously elastic garments covering the leg from the foot up to the knee or possibly part or all of the thigh. Stockings vary in color, design, and transparency. Today, stockings are primarily worn for fashion and aesthetics, usually in association with mid-length or short skirts.
A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be called soft toys or cuddly toys. The stuffed toy originated from the Steiff company of Germany in the late 19th century and gained popularity following the creation of the teddy bear in the United States in 1903. At the same time, German toy inventor Richard Steiff designed a similar bear. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy. In 1921, Christopher Robin's stuffed toy, given to him by his father, A. A. Milne, would inspire the creation of Winnie-the-Pooh. In the 1970s, London-based Hamleys, the world's oldest toy store, bought the rights to Paddington Bear stuffed toys. In the 1990s, Ty Warner created Beanie Babies, a series of animals stuffed with plastic pellets that were popular as collector's items.
Circular knitting or knitting in the round is a form of knitting that creates a seamless tube. Work in the round is begun by casting on stitches as for flat knitting but then joining the ends of that row of stitches to form a circle. Knitting is worked in rounds, which forms the tube by winding around in a helix.
An overlock is a kind of stitch that sews over the edge of one or two pieces of cloth for edging, hemming, or seaming. Usually an overlock sewing machine will cut the edges of the cloth as they are fed through, though some are made without cutters. The inclusion of automated cutters allows overlock machines to create finished seams easily and quickly. An overlock sewing machine differs from a lockstitch sewing machine in that it uses loopers fed by multiple thread cones rather than a bobbin. Loopers serve to create thread loops that pass from the needle thread to the edges of the fabric so that the edges of the fabric are contained within the seam.
Knitting is the process of using two or more needles to pull and loop yarn into a series of interconnected loops in order to create a finished garment or some other type of fabric. The word is derived from knot, thought to originate from the Dutch verb knutten, which is similar to the Old English cnyttan, "to knot". Its origins lie in the basic human need for clothing for protection against the elements. More recently, hand knitting has become less a necessary skill and more of a hobby.
Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but using a sewing machine is also possible. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stitch in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row, and then filling in the framework thus created, as if weaving. Darning is a traditional method for repairing fabric damage or holes that do not run along a seam, and where patching is impractical or would create discomfort for the wearer, such as on the heel of a sock.
The Merrow Sewing Machine Company, best known for inventing the overlock sewing machine, is a manufacturer of sewing machines. After the explosion of his gunpowder mill in 1837, in 1838 J.M. Merrow built a knitting mill on the same site. The company developed crocheting machines for its own use and by 1887 evolved to design, build and market sewing machines exclusively. During its early decades it was organized as a partnership under various names: established in 1838 as Joseph M. Merrow & Sons by J. Makens Merrow, then Pitkin, Merrow, & Co., renamed Merrow Manufacturing Co. in 1857, then Merrow and Millard in 1863, J.B. Merrow and Sons in 1870, and incorporated as The Merrow Manufacturing Company in 1893. Originally all of its manufacturing was done at facilities in Merrow, Connecticut, and then in Hartford, Connecticut, after 1894. The company is currently based in Fall River, Massachusetts.
Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. The word is a compound of the Japanese words 編み ami, meaning "crocheted or knitted", and 包み kurumi, literally "wrapping", as in 縫い包み nuigurumi "(sewn) stuffed doll". Amigurumi vary in size and there are no restrictions about size or look. While the art of amigurumi has been known in Japan for several decades, the craft first started appealing to the masses in other countries, especially in the West, in 2003. By 2006, amigurumi were reported to be some of the most popular items on Etsy, an online craft marketplace, where they typically sold for $10 to $100.
Knitted fabric is a textile that results from knitting, the process of inter-looping of yarns or inter-meshing of loops. Its properties are distinct from woven fabric in that it is more flexible and can be more readily constructed into smaller pieces, making it ideal for socks and hats.
Shannon Okey is an American writer and knit designer.
Fully fashioned stockings (FFS), are stockings with characteristic reinforcements on the heel and top, a so-called keyhole at the back of the top, and a stitched back seam in between. They are made to be worn with a garter belt and are today considered a vintage design of hosiery after largely having been replaced by seamless stockings and pantyhose from the 1960s onwards. Fully fashioned stockings are usually made from nylon and thus have very little stretch compared with modern stockings and pantyhose.
Stitch 'n Bitch is a name that has been used to refer to social knitting groups since at least World War II. Before the slang term "Stitch 'n Bitch" was used, groups of women in the 1940s would join to knit and talk in organized Stitch and Bitch clubs. The term was further used in the 1980s as part of the book Social History of American Knitting by Anne Macdonald. It is partly due to the book's success that the modern day Stitch 'n Bitch knitting groups have emerged in cities around the world. The groups, mainly women, meet to knit, stitch and talk. Typically, attendees knit, though others crochet, and still others engage in cross-stitching, embroidery, and other needlecraft. Nowadays, the groups have been analyzed by scholars as expressions of resistance to major political, social and technological change in Western societies. However, political discussion is not unusual at these events, and at least some participants are proponents of progressive, liberal, and/or leftist social and political change. Furthermore, the term Stitch 'n Bitch is now used by women from across the globe to connect with others in the virtual space seeing as the term has re-emerged in a world where the public sphere is the cyberspace.
Fox River Mills, Inc., is a sock manufacturer based in Osage, Iowa.
Sew Fast Sew Easy was a corporation based in the Garment District in New York City, that is best known for sewing classes, sewing patterns and sewing books. It was founded in 1991 by Elissa K. Meyrich, a designer in New York City's garment district for over 26 years, an instructor at Parsons School of Design, and an author and contributing writer to sewing publications. Sew Fast Sew Easy classes were part of a resurgence in traditional home economics enabled by networked technologies including Internet chat groups and digitally-adjustable patterns. The company created NYC's first Stitch and Bitch group in 1997. The company started an Internet guestbook, the Stitch and Bitch Cafe, in 1998.
Hand knitting is a form of knitting, in which the knitted fabric is produced by hand using needles.
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic Era. Although usually associated with clothing and household linens, sewing is used in a variety of crafts and industries, including shoemaking, upholstery, sailmaking, bookbinding and the manufacturing of some kinds of sporting goods. Sewing is the fundamental process underlying a variety of textile arts and crafts, including embroidery, tapestry, quilting, appliqué and patchwork.
Ana Karen Allende is a Mexican artisan from the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, who specializes in creating rag dolls and soft fabric animals. The tradition of making rag dolls in Mexico extends back to the pre-Hispanic period with the making of rag dolls reaching its peak in the 19th century. Allende's first doll was made when her sister was about to turn fifteen. For quinceañera celebrations in Xochimilco, it is customary to give the girl her “last doll” as a means of marking her transition from child to adult. Allende decided to make this doll herself, using sewing skills taught to her by her grandmother. Soon after, she began to make dolls for her friends and family, and the attention they received prompted her to think of selling them.
Martha Nelson Thomas was an American folk artist, known for her work in soft sculpture. Thomas was the creator of "Doll Babies," later plagiarised as Cabbage Patch Kids.
sock monkeys have been part of American culture for nearly 100 years
Media related to Sock monkeys at Wikimedia Commons