Update: Voting has ended. Winner: Anne M (Congrats!)
There were hundreds of touching, generous, and hilarious entries. Thank-you so much for participating.
We've painstakingly narrowed it down to our top 5. Please read each and vote on who should win "Socks for Life" below.
Voting ends Dec 15th. One vote per person.
E.Y.
What will I do with socks for life? Every ball of yarn that comes into the house drives my husband batty. What makes it worse is that I will not knit anything for him - he is incredibly fussy and has no concept of the work that goes into a pair of socks (or anything knitted item for that matter). Couple that with the fact that I knit and generally donate the items to others puts him right around the bend. I cannot think of a better way to spend my life with him! Yes - if I knit socks, mitts, hats, etc I will keep some of them but most of them will be donated to local organizations. As I do not care for wool (really - yes I know - I am one of those) I anticipate that most items will be donated. I have recently discovered knitting socks on two straight needles both socks at the same time and it changed my life. My hands are not as sore and it takes me a fraction of the time to complete a pair (no SSS as both are done at the same time and have identical number of rows) - I have even recruited 1/2 dozen folks over to my way of doing socks and they have hugged me for it. I anticipate I will spread the sock yarn to them to knit donations and maybe use the yarn to teach others that socks really do not need to be difficult especially if you are not a fan of double points or circulars. I enjoy doing what I do and helping out when I can. Not an inch of it will be wasted - ever. Cheers and happy knitting.
Anne M
"The prize will go to whomever can show how their life will most be changed by winning ... ." Well, my husband might divorce me if I added that much yarn to my stash, which would be a HUGE change ... raising 9 kids, but it's worth the risk, so I am entering! On a more serious note, I have benefited greatly from the services of the Fertility Care Institute which specializes in women's reproductive issues. With a history of miscarriage and high risk pregnancy, the Institute has helped me carry my last 4 babies from conception to delivery. With all the technology and help they provide, heartache still occurs. The nurses at the Institute donate money for yarn and have friends knit prayer shawls for mothers suffering the loss of a child. I spent almost every one of my bi-weekly visits to the Institute knitting in the waiting room, which does not go unnoticed. The nurses asked if I would teach classes so they could knit the shawls themselves. All this sock yarn would allow me to do just that. Such a worthy cause providing comfort for women in a situation that I personally know all too well.
Gloria F
I belong to the most fantastic group of knitters - We meet every Tuesday and have usually an attendance of 20-25 enthusiastic and caring women. We make items for our families but most of our work is for charity knitting. One of our group has made over 150 small knitted dolls for children in Haiti, Honderas and other countries - We are currently making pneumonia vests for refugee children in Syria and other places in the world where new born babies are at risk.- Our group plus another in our town has over 100 women working on this project. I would love to be chosen for your gift of sock yarn. I usually knit socks for all of my family every Christmas - With children, grandchildren (and their boy & girl friends) my most productive year was 14 pairs- This Christmas I am knitting socks for the Samaritan's Purse mission gift boxes too. If I should be so fortunate to win your gift it would be shared with our groups who share their knitting talents to make the lives of children in need a little less traumatic.
Heather
First of all I have to say wow, what an amazing prize. Winning this prize just might change my life. I am a single mom with 5 amazing kids who all LOVE my hand knit socks. Recently I had to switch jobs in order to give me more time to devote to my two special needs children and all their appointments. This job switch has resulted in a significant pay cut but I know this is the best thing for my children and my family as a whole at this time. This pay cut is definitely going to affect my yarn budget so winning this would honestly be a dream for me. This would keep my children and myself in hand knit socks for quite awhile. Also if I were to win I would share some of the beautiful yarns with other friends who might find it difficult to support their yarny habits :) and hey I might even teach a few friends to knit socks as well so we can stop the madness of buying socks at Costco :) Thanks for the opportunity to enter to win this amazing prize.
Deb
I think the first thing I would do is throw a pile of sock yarn on my bed and roll in it. Like people who win cash. Then I would start planning my sock life. I have lots of sock patterns and sock books, and I want to try every last one!!!! But winning this prize would actually be a community service, because it would keep my brain busy. As a friend of mine once said, my brain with nothing to do is "not pretty to watch"!!! Since I am newly retired from 34 years of teaching (I figured I had messed up enough kids' brains at that point), I could really get into lots of mischief on my own. So you see? Community service!