Controlling skeleton manually

Hello,

so let’s say i have a character who has an item in his left hand. My aim is to give a player an opportunity to change the height of the item. Is it possible to make a socket for the item in the skeleton and later on if player presses up button to manually move the bones so the hand moves somekind of up or down and so the item with it. Or do i have to make an animation for each postiton the hand may get into?