Sock Monkey Madness

Recently, I took the fam­ily to Rockford to visit the Sock Monkey Madness Convention at Midway Village.

Sock Monkeys bring joy to our hearts. They bring out an inex­plic­a­ble desire to cud­dle them and love them. You just want to take every stray Sock Monkey home and give it a place to live.

Before the Sock Monkey Madness con­ven­tion, I didn’t know that home for Sock Monkeys was Rockford, Illinois. We learned that Rockford once had a thriv­ing knit­ting indus­try, and out of that indus­try came the Rockford Red Heel socks, and ulti­mately, Sock Monkeys. We also learned, that there are a lot of Sock Monkey lovers around!

The dis­play was a great mix of old and new. The his­tory of the knit­ting indus­try which came out of Rockford, Illinois, and stemmed the orig­i­nal Sock Monkey dolls dur­ing the the early 1900’s was well doc­u­mented. The dolls are made from orig­i­nal Rockford Red Heel socks, and have become a very rec­og­niz­able icon of “Americana.” Sock Monkeys are still col­lected and loved world­wide. The socks are still sold today as basic work socks and con­tinue to include instruc­tions on mak­ing your own Sock Monkey.

Attendees were able to sign up in advance to make their very own Sock Monkey. The two rooms set aside for the work were packed with peo­ple when we walked through. Another booth offered a Sock Monkey Tattoo ser­vice! For a small fee, vis­i­tors could have a “Mom” heart tat­too sewn on their Sock Monkey’s arm, just like in the recent Kia Sorento car commercial.

A large  assort­ment of Sock Monkeys and their wares were also avail­able from a wide range of ven­dors. Intermingled with the ven­dor booths were tables full of fab­ric and craft­ing sup­plies where indus­tri­ous crafters could make out­fits and acces­sories for their Monkeys. It was hard to choose only one memento of the weekend!

The Midway Village Museum was a per­fect venue, show­ing a tie to the his­tory of this Midwest town. The Village rep­re­sents a typ­i­cal rural town in Northern Illinois at the end of the 19th and the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tury.  The Village’s his­tor­i­cal struc­tures include a gen­eral store, hard­ware store, print shop, black­smith shop, school­house, town hall, police sta­tion, plumb­ing shop, bank, hotel, hos­pi­tal, fire sta­tion, church, bar­ber shop, law office, two barns, and four farm houses. If you take a trip to the annual con­ven­tion, make sure you take time to explore the vil­lage while you’re there.

If you love Sock Monkey, or just love some good old fash­ioned “Americana,” watch for Sock Monkey Madness next year in Rockford, and bring home your very own.

photo by ejourna

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