When Anna was a baby I made her a sock monkey out of a pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks, just as I had done for her father when he was little. The sock monkey didn’t get much playtime and I didn’t make anymore for the other three grandchildren. At Christmas I noticed Anna using the sock monkey like a puppet with the other kids at breakfast. Everyone was laughing and she was enjoying playing with her(it is a girl and her name is Mrs. Sock Monkey) She asked me if I could make her a pink sock monkey. I said I didn’t know how I could because I didn’t know at the time you could buy PINK red heel socks.
Last weekend when I visited, the old sock monkey had not only a bed made from a Costco box, covered in blanket but there was a small basket added as a bunk with a junior sized sock monkey wrapped up in a hand knitted dishrag (the sock monkey was one of Murphy the Airedale’s former toys!- every dog needs a sock monkey).
And to Anna and Maura’s surprise, I showed up with two pairs of PINK red heel socks I found online. Laura brought over her portable sewing machine and I sat at the kitchen table stitching up the legs and arms. Anna helped stuff the limbs. The girls were really excited to watch the socks turn into monkeys. I embroidered the eyes and nostrils with some variegated cotton yarn I had as a knitting project.
The next morning as they were waiting to go to church, I had them open the front door to get some available light for a photo of them with their monkeys. Strawberry and Blueberry are their names. Blueberry has blue eyes like Maura and that’s how they can tell them apart. I used a 1/5 shutter speed -handheld -which is really not a good idea. Too much camera shake.
The snow in the night added some reflected light but the winter morning was fairly gray. Murphy decided to come and see what was happening outside and Anna thought he would make a good horse for the monkeys. Murphy didn’t even mind. He remained undisturbed even though Maura was squealing excitedly. Then Anna wrote sock monkey on the condensation inside the storm door glass. I love that all the fancy toys are ignored and the homemade bed out of box and a couple of pairs of socks, transformed into monkeys, delighted the girls. I told Anna how Aunt Mary and I went to the Sock Monkey Museum in Rockford, Illinois.
