Every Friday afternoon when I was in year 2 at school, we'd have craft or sewing lessons. These were meant as something fun to end the week with. Now I've never been very keen on craft or sewing but this particular project had me quite enthused.We were to make dolls from old socks. Well,I loved dolls and my dad had plenty of old socks. Are you sure you don't want two? He said. No, I answered, we're just making one.

Now I can't remember how we went about making this sock-doll other than that we put a fair bit of stuffing tn the head,, but they seemed to be finished quite quickly and easily. I sewed on two blue buttons for eyes, a round pink button for a nose and a mouth, that was sewn, except mine was crooked. It made Sockie look like she always had a crooked grin, which became part of her personality. She had some hair too; some blonde tufts of yellow wool.I kept the name Sockie, not only because she was made from a sock,but because it suited her.

She turned into a very naughty girl..She would do acrobats around my room and jumped on my bed and wouldn't stop when she was asked; so then of course she got a smack or two. These didn't seem to bother her a great deal; she'd just laugh at me.

She went everywhere with me, especially to school, where she loved to take up show'n'tell time by talking about her exploits. She just loved it when the children laughed; she was a frightful show-off .Sometimes, I'd have to leave her in the car if I thought she was going to misbehave. When I came back to the car, she'd grizzle and grouch about how mean and unkind I was.

To show her that I wasn't mean and that I loved her, I brought her along when we had a holiday in Sydney. We were camping at that time and she tried out all her old tricks; jumping on the stretcher beds, tickling people and doing cartwheels.as well as loudly interrupting conversations. I told her she had to behave or I'd send her back with the postman. That settled her down somewhat. Sockie loved Sydney (I took her on the Ferry once),but I didn't take her out too much, or she might have run away. I don't think she'd have enjoyed being lost in such a big city

I had sockie for a long time, for years after I'd finished playing with her. I have a feeling she's around my Mum's house somewhere and our son is helping with a clean up soon,so I'll ask him to keep an eye open.. I do hope she's somewhere; I have a short but fun history with her and I'd hate not to see her again.. I actually love her a lot.