December 09, 2003

How to make a sock monkey.
posted by Dr. Zira 20 years ago
  • Wow. That is so cool - now I want to try, and I don't even have a sewing machine. But where can I find socks in those colours?
  • Say no more, my Canadian friend.
  • I'm not a craft-oriented person, but that's just the coolest thing I have ever seen.
  • I really like the Incredible Hulk Monkey, although I can't help but notice that when photographing sock monkeys, you have to be careful where you put the tail.
  • No sock puppet thread is complete without..... WHEE! (via Kimberly)
  • If you've got the socks, but not the time, this guy will do it for you.
  • oh! i love sock monkeys! i wrote an article years ago about them. an excerpt: Around 1890 Illinois businessman John Nelson tried perfecting a compact sock-producing machine to sell for home use. Unfortunately the machines weighed hundreds of pounds. Nelson's friends and family encouraged him instead to sell socks made on the machines. So he founded Nelson Knitting Mills in Rockford, Ill. The mill became known for its durable, red-heeled work socks. Many people still call them "Rockford red-heeled socks." In the early 1900s mothers made sock dolls for their children. Someone, somewhere, discovered that these red-heeled socks made great sock monkeys, with just enough red for a cute little mouth and derriere. So Nelson Knitting Mills packaged the directions for sock monkeys with its socks. In 1992 the old machines at Nelson finally wore out. Fox River Mills in Osage, Iowa, acquired the trademark and began making the socks, still including the sock-monkey sewing directions. Around that time Mooney made a sock monkey for her young son, Danny. He loved it and promptly requested a sock tiger. So she designed one and made it for him. Pretty soon sock monkey, sock tiger and Danny were having all kinds of adventures around the house. Mooney started snapping photos to show friends. "I accumulated hundreds of pictures," she said. "Someone said it would make a fun book." That was the inspiration for "Tiger's New Friends," "Tiger's Vacation" and "Sock Monkey's Family Reunion," children's books published by Jamondas Press. (The books can be ordered by calling 800-223-7873).
  • Dont forget Sock Monkey. He's my favorite. Well, I love Drinky Crow too, cuz he's a bird after my own heart.
  • This post rocks! Sock Monkey should be the Official Monkeyfilter mascot.
  • that kinda sorta looks like a sock monkey hanging off the mofi M...
  • I was just thinking that more sock monkeys would be a good thing in general.
  • More sock moneys, including the first punk rock monkey and a socktopus. [via]
  • love the hat!
  • we're all sock puppets here...
  • Ah, this one has been visited of late, how nice! And don't forget the short-lived, yet strangely intriguing Misadventures of Sockmonkey! (by Kakupacal) Panel 1 Panel 2 Panel 3 Panel 4 Panel Crap, What's next!?
  • I'm about to sock a monkey, so take a number, you.
  • Heh. His T-shirt says "BJ" on it, just like mine. Wait *looks at shirt, does double-take*
  • Ooooooh, whooooozapwettywiddwwoowymunkeeeee?
  • Eeew! *buzzes off hastily*
  • Sock Monkey Dress That is, a dress made out of sock monkeys. Not a dress for sock monkeys.
  • Gah! worse 'n' worsted! Rightly or wrongly, I incline to regard the sock monkey with its exaggerated red mouth as a kind of US golliwog. The first golliwog I ever encountered was in England. There were no available kids' toys, everything was still rationed, and one of my sisters was given a homemade golliwog by an elderly associate of my father's who made it with her own hands (the same woman gave me a big flannel elephant, also hand-made). Golliwogs featured in several of the English kids' books and annuals we encountered in the immediate post-war period, too.
  • A big flannel elephant! Do you still have him? *wishes she had a big fabulous floppy flannel 'phant
  • My mother made me a teddy bear out of an old houndstooth plaid wool coat when I was a kid. I had him forever.
  • Alas, Roland the stuffed elephant got given away to my friend Michael when we moved from England. Somewhere in the unending trail of Important Things Left Behind when we moved there is also a white flannel swan named Lwellyn and a transparent dark blue celluloid duck named Montgomery who always leaked and would slowly fill with water and sink ingloriously to the bottom of the tub; I was always having to go back and empty Montgomery out, a process that took a while as he had to be shaken violently to expel all the water. I thought he was lovely, for he was the same wonderful blue as the bottle of Vicks Vaporub.
  • *wishes she had a big fabulous floppy flannel 'phant More proof that Freud was right.
  • Homunculus: Bite. Me. You disgusting little man. Bees: Yes, Vicks bottles are a wonderous blue, aren't they? I remember sorting them out and picking them up from amid the rusted tin cans from old dumps out in the desert--I think that blue jar goes back for years and years and years.... Milk of Mag bottles, too. Great for putting little white Spring wild flowers in.
  • Ack! Rereading that makes it sound extremely rude. OK, let's do this again. Homunculus: Nibble. My. Toes. You icky short person. (wadja think, guys, did that moderate a bit?)
  • *Nibbles BH's floppy 'phant*
  • Psst! homunculus! That ain't GramMa's 'phant; she doesn't have a 'phant!
  • *is embarrassed*
  • I love it when an old thread comes together. *chews on cigar, but not, like, in a weird Freudian way*
  • *grateful not be an icky short person*
  • Is GramMa 'phanticizing again?
  • Na, just letting my id run wild..
  • Giddyap! *smak* Err . .sorry. heh. Got carried away with the chaps and all.
  • *grateful not be an icky short person* Bigot.
  • Ickyist.
  • 'Munc-y!
  • ah, can I get a judges' ruling on that one from bees?
  • the ickthyest some days he thinks he wants to be a fish in chainmail scales the slitheriest in estuary or the straits he flips his tail ducks undersea less gulled than sky more winged than bee
  • *whinnies, paws the air, laughs at Pete in his funny western costume H'unculus, I'll have you know, my id is average size, and my ot is NOT BIG.
  • Oooooooooooh, lookie! Lovely sock monkeys from Etsy!
  • OMGOMGOMG! ANOTHER ONE! Second one--DO NOT MISS! Story about the second dress
  • OH MY!! Angels in MonkeyHeaven wear such dresses! *psst! I know what we need to get trac for Christmas!*
  • Ahh, cute. The camel reminded me of Sheri Lewis' Lambchop.
  • Adorable. I wish I could knit!!! Now I have a sad. :(