How far we have come.

Years ago, shortly after stumbling into the "sock toy" world, I happened upon these books and I just had to buy them. 


 


This one, published in 1958

And this one from 1974




















The 1958 one is especially hilarious, just looks at the cover. Woot, now we can make toys for bazaars AND shut-ins!  Apparently, back in the day, cuddliness wasn't the highest priority. The instructions for this bunny tell you to add "broom straw" for the whiskers. How would you like to snuggle up to that at night?

The crafters of our past were also not concerned about the mental health of their gift recipients... there is no other word for this puppet but terrifying!  

We won't even get into some of the vaguely racist toys included. EEK! It really is amazing to see how much has changed,not only in the design style but also the sock options and crafting supplies in general. In reading through these books basically your choices were a plain, dark colored dress sock or a red heeled sock. Not a lot of variety, to say the least!