Midway Village Museum in Rockford is hosting its 21st Sock Monkey Madness, which will include a Make-a-Monkey Workshop, sock monkey-themed crafts and games, and tours of The Missing Link Sock Monkey History Exhibit. Don’t worry if your sock monkey needs repair: the Sockford General Hospital can fix it up for you.

Believe it or not, the sock monkey’s creation can be traced to Rockford. John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant, patented an automatic knitting machine in 1868 that could mass-produce socks, which had not been done before. He then started the Nelson Knitting Company in 1880 and introduced “Nelson Socks,” which were brown socks and also called “Celebrated Rockford Hosiery.”

Nelson’s company turned Rockford into a sock-producing town, with five companies all creating socks there at the same time. Nelson Knitting Company released its “De-Tec-Tip” sock in 1932, which had a red heel to make it stand out from competitors’ offerings. The red heel may not seem like much, but it became the sock monkey’s mouth and bottom, giving Rockford a little-known historical footnote.

And when the sock monkey became popular in the 1950s, it was the Nelson Knitting Company that received its patent, despite a dispute over who should get it. The company even added instructions to its socks’ packaging about how to make a sock monkey.

But it was the Great Depression and World War II that caused the sock monkey to be created in the first place. Because of the economic and political unrest, fewer goods were being imported to the United States, causing families to be creative in the toys their children played with. That included the sock monkey, which could be created using only socks, a sewing machine and something to put in the socks.

Today, the Midway Village Museum has a sock monkey that is more than seven feet tall – one of the largest in the world.