Sure, we all love Grandma's carefully handcrafted creations.
That loopy afghan made with purple yarn and lots of love, that random tea cozy shaped like a snail or those avocado green macrame potholders tucked away in a drawer in the kitchen, and of course, that silly, smiley sock monkey (my husband still has the original dog-eared one his grandma gave him).
Sok-O does, too, but instead of going the tried-and-true, somewhat old-fashioned route, they're giving their 100% handmade sock puppets a fresh-faced, amusingly campy appeal that's more contemporary than crochet.
Founded by three Los
Angeles-based designers and one Taiwan-based designer, Sok-O is all about high-quality design with plenty of offbeat, playful touches thrown in for good measure, which means there's a menagerie of eight trippy animal characters to choose from, including Bu-Lou the dog (I think), Hooligan the mohawked duck, Trumbo the elephant, Dazzze the pig (shown at bottom right, $49), Du-Lee the owl, Peeko the alligator (shown at top left, $49) and Pea the dog. 
Each soft toy is made from an actual pair of socks (or in some cases one
individual sock), and comes complete with a Cabbage Patch-like window box (aka: carrier) and an individual birth certificate. Check out the web site for full descriptions on their likes and dislikes, too.
Due to their handmade nature, no two
designs are ever identical and make for unique gifts. And I have to say, they're way better than those Ugly dolls.
Cosmomama says there's more in the details:
Sok-O makes sure to give each character tons of personality including creative shapes and cute detailing. In this case, that means buttons, so it's best not to let kiddies under three years of age play with the toys unsupervised.
