Winwick Mum Sockalong 11th birthday giveaway results

Well, what a week this has been!  Thank you so much for celebrating the Winwick Mum Sockalong 10th birthday with me, and thank you for all your comments on the birthday blog post.

I’ve got the results of the Annual Sock Count and the winners of the two giveaway prizes to announce but first, I hope you’ll indulge me as I ramble on a little bit about how much I really love this time of year.

It’s always brilliant to read how many pairs of socks you’ve knitted and how the Sockalong tutorials have helped you, and it touches my heart every year to be reminded that the tutorials are still providing such value as new sock knitters find them – thank you.  I love that they never go out of date and now there are new generations knitting socks – children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces – sock knitting is a life skill for all ages and genders.

What I love most, though, is hearing where your sock knitting has taken you.  I love hearing about shared birthdays, seeing familiar names as well as new ones, seeing where in the world you are – and goodness, it’s amazing to think that our Sockalong community spans the globe – and knowing that your sock knitting has carried you through highs and lows to produce woolly gifts for your own feet, for friends, for family and for others who need to know that someone cares about them.  I’ve loved reading about the knit groups you’ve started (Claire), the road trips you’ve taken (I was particularly tickled by the image of Gail as sock knitting “passenger princess”), and knitting out and about – even whilst volunteering at a castle (Jacqueline), and it makes me wonder how people who don’t knit socks ever manage to get on with their lives! 🙂

Oh, I wish I could mention you all in the post and give you all a prize for the joy that you’ve brought to me through your sock-knitting!  For those of you dealing with loss or dealing with any kind of tough time whether physically or mentally, I am sending you all my love and I hope that the stitches bring you comfort.  I’m not going to lie, there are both smiles and tears when I read your comments, and I am always so happy that you’ve taken the time to share them with me.

It’s these little glimpses into your lives that remind me that the Winwick Mum Sockalong is so much more than just a series of blog tutorials – they’ve been a gateway for others to all the things that I have experienced myself through knitting socks: fulfilling an ambition to knit socks that fit; something that’s easy to keep at hand for quiet moments and, as an added bonus, something that starts conversations, or keeps that busy (and sometimes critical) voice in our heads distracted, and means that now, we can create the most special, thoughtful and bespoke of all gifts for the people we love.  THIS is what I wanted to share through the Sockalong tutorials.  I have always said, and I still firmly believe, that there’s magic in those little rounds that doesn’t exist in the same way anywhere else!

Every year, I feel the need to say this and I’m going to say it again: I see the word “only” in the comments, and there is never any “only” about the pairs of socks you’ve knitted, whatever the number.  Every pair of socks is to be celebrated as an achievement – we’ve all been beginners once, remembering that moment when we had a pair of socks in our hands that actually fitted us 🙂 – but more than that, we do so much more in our days to look after ourselves and others through working or caring that it’s important to see our socks (or any other kind of hobby) as an “as well as”, a way to bring ourselves calm and peace, and there should never be an “only” about that.

I’ve also seen lots of “I’m just getting ready to start” and if you’re about to cast on, then what are you waiting for?!  Now is the perfect time! 🙂  Don’t let the fear of something new stop you from casting on – the worst that happens is that you’ll unravel and start again, and you’ll always learn something from the experience.  Everyone was a beginner once …  Oh, and most importantly, don’t let needing to be perfect get in the way of being good enough; these are socks, you’re not sending a rocket into space 🙂  (I wrote a Monthly Musing on this once – you can find it here if you’d like to read it!)

And now it’s time to find out if you’ve won a prize!

Let me remind you of this year’s prizes:

This year, I’ve got:

💜  Two signed copies of Super Socks, the paperback version of the online Sockalong tutorials …

💜  Tins, sticky notes and the most fabulous project bags from Emma Ball, perfect for storing everything to do with your socks …

💜  Yarnsmiths Merino Sock yarn from my lovely friends at Wool Warehouse …

💜  Tape measures for measuring foot circumference and length (ha! did you think I wasn’t going to mention the Sock Stitch Calculation in this post?)

💜  and there’s an exclusive Winwick Mum bookmark and Winwick Mum Sockalong pin badge for each winner.

 

Now, just before I tell you who’s won, let me tell how how many socks we’ve got in our total!

As part of the entry to the giveaway, I always ask how many pairs of socks you’ve knitted which go towards the Annual Sock Count total.  This is never going to be an accurate figure because I try to give my pattern away to anyone who will stay still for long enough to take it, so it’s only for fun because it’s the one time of the year that I can ask you – but it’s a bit of fun that I do enjoy very much!

Last year, we were up to 23,713 pairs and I’m delighted to tell you that total has gone up quite considerably!

From our first count in 2016 (3,552 pairs), the totals have risen by 4,500 (2017), 3,360 (2018), 1,040 (2019), 1,385 (2020), 1,270 (2022), 2,180 (2023), 1,053 (2024), 3,048 (2025), 2325 (2026) and this year, 2295 pairs of socks!

This gives us a grand total of …

26,008 pairs of socks!

 

Oh my goodness, what an incredible total – and I am so delighted that I have been able to help get all of those pairs of socks onto and off needles and onto feet!

 

And finally, without any more distraction, let’s get down to the draw!  I’ve put the number of comments on the blog, from emails and social media into the Random.org generator and here are the winners as they came out:

 

 

Congratulations, Anna and Margaret!  I’ve sent you both an email so please do check your spam folders if you can’t see it, and as soon as I know where to send them, I’ll get your prizes sent out to you.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway and left comments, it’s been another wonderful Sockalong birthday and I’m looking forward to next year already! xx