The Sock Dino

The Sock Dino

My personal passion is sewing with flair. I love to do things new and unusual. I rarely use patterns, as they limit the possibilities of a mistake turning into something extra fun. Years ago my Aunt June told me repeatedly that following directions is extremely important, and learning how to do things right as well. Yet, at the same time, never fearing to step out and away from what you know best, to find what you were meant to... all along, was just as equally significant.

More recently; while shopping with my good friend Amy at the thrift store a few weeks back, we were talking about dinosaurs. There was a contest on a poetry site over the internet, regarding the ancient reptiles. We had both become members of that site weeks earlier. In chatting back and forth we had agreed to enter our poems. The crazy part, was all the while she was speaking to me... she was standing right next to a toy display. A bright package was standing out among the others, "Sew a Dinosaur", vividly in clear print. Not just any relic of the past, but a blue one... just like the contest had called for. I wanted to point it out. I almost did. But I just could not stop thinking I had been handed the perfect gift.

As she walked away, toward the registered... I quickly slipped the box into my cart. Causally I paid the cashier while standing right beside Amy again, all the way. Then we walked out the door. She never once saw it. I dropped my dear friend back at her place and drove on home. I found I was humming while I drove. I had not done that since I could remember. When I got to my house, I could not wait any longer but immediately went inside and opened my bag. My pulse raced just a little in the same way you feel just after a good ride at the fair.

I pulled the contents of my shopping trip from the bag and placed everything on the table. Then by-passing the other little items, I had purchased all together, I went straight for the prize. I picked up the box directly. I turned it over a couple of times. Then, cheerfully I read the label and smiled impulsively. No one was around, but I know that God smiled too.

It was a beginners' kit. "Learn how to sew!" displayed on two sides. The year of manufacture; 1973. I would have been ten when it first came out. The maker and production company clearly written, was "Singer". My aunt might have even bought this for me if she had found it. She would do that sometimes with little sewing kits. She would buy them for every kind of skill. That included everything from crochet, and knitting, to tie-dying, and tatting. She even bought me special scissors, all my own. This was important as she said, they were not toys. They were to "make" them.

I remember now as I look back; I learned to embroidery my name, nearly before I could write it. It was a good time. I stayed with Aunt June every summer and all the holidays. My aunt is very missed, and holding the box... made me both happy, and sad.

How did it get here?

How did it make it all this way, in one piece?

Some part of me wanted to set it aside or give it to my friend just as it was now. The perfect, even pristine package was lovely. It was an antique. But yet... I continued. Carefully I took the insides out and lay them on the table. It was a complete kit to make a sock animal kind of doll. I had never done that kind of toy before. That was a little surprising. My experience had included dragons, unicorns, and the like, so I was not completely out of my field, but yet... this was different.

How?

It used socks mostly, well actually completely. But that was just the visual part. This gift of "making" was for a special friend. The approach to that thinking changes the heart.

How do handmade bears get their hearts?

Cut from purest red velvet,

placed inside by unique angels!

(Those that truly love us.)

A friend is a very dear person indeed. They are nearly impossible to find at times. They don't always last, like fresh flowers. Odd, some do. I have had a mix of both. At times it has left me higher than the clouds in the sky. While at others; I did not believe the pain could be so great... from someone, not even your own blood. In ways, it is far worse directly because of that fact. We do not get to choose our family, but we do our friends. It is hard to understand that is not always a forever thing. The reasons can be both long and complicated. But like love itself, it is nearly if not completely painful to have, and have not. This is important as I speak now of all that I have learned in my life about dolls...

The material can make the difference. Some are soft, while others... too hard. Even though they, the fabrics seem like the right match at the beginning of the pattern, life changes. In this case, the socks were blue like the sky. They had small dots all over them. That made them oddly familiar, like the book by Dr. Seuss. The one with the zoo animal on the front. He has many dots as well. I can not remember more than that, but I loved the book as a child. Again, another memory... out of a simple box? That made the movement forward that much easier.

Pushing everything else out of the way, the day was wide open. I scooped up the contents of the container, back into the box, and headed to the outside porch. I only stopped a moment to retrieve my scissors, my pens, and my needles. Somehow the music was already playing, "Amazing Grace"; softly in the background. I can not remember turning it on, but humming to it now was extremely easy.

The soft instrument filled the air and gave the task weightlessness. I found my favorite chair and placed the items on my worktable. Immediately, I sat down and put the box down too. Then I carefully lined everything up just right and set to work. I did not stop until it was done. I was clumsy for a while at first. I am not sure why. It was, however, hard to see through unexpected, and very silent tears. It felt like yesterday had come to visit and I wished it never had to leave again. Each threaded needle, each clipped thread... with my aunt's scissors in my now steady hand... was a moment recaptured.

In no time at all, the little dino was looking right at me. We had to decide together on the rest.

How he would meet his new mom?

What he was going to say... and how he was going to say it... without words?

Then, a few days later; Amy came by the house. It was not unexpected, it was looked forward to. She knocked on the door and rang the bell. The blue dinosaur was waiting. He was hard to miss there on the table in plain sight. She fell in love instantly and asked all about him. So, I told her how he had made his way from the store and now was waiting just for her. I also told her how he was connected to the contest. Then we laughed together. We had both received honorable mentions for our entries.

I explained the story with a grin about making the beginners kit. I also told her... he had heart. I had placed it there myself. But it was not red, but blue. That was because he was made just for her, and her favorite color was blue.

I also laughed and told her how I had acquired him in the first place. I reminded her about being in the store. I told her how the little box was sitting right there on the shelf... just waiting. It was as if the dinosaur had watched us both, a pet in the pet shop waiting to get a new owner.

Amy hugged me tightly that day and we both cried just a little. A friend is so very precious. Finding just the right thread between two people is so hard, but worth the effort of every stitch.

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