Finale
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007Can you believe it? The Summer of Socks 2007 is officially over and fall is here (not that you could tell by the weather here in central NJ)! It seems like just yesterday we were all gearing up for this and now it’s done. It’s been an awesome summer for socks. I mean, look at all the beautiful socks in the Flickr group! There are definitely going to be many happy warm feet this coming winter!
There are so many people to thank that went into making this along a success. First, I must thank Risa for sharing her technological prowess with all of us. If not for her automated sign up form and willingness to field several frantic phone call from me at the beginning, we wouldn’t all be here! She also made it possible for all of you to get the winning pattern from the Design Contest. Thank you so much Risa!
Next I must thank all our amazing sponsors. Their faith and trust in me and their generosity to everyone involved in this along was just overwhelming. When the e-mails first started coming in, I was totally overwhelmed. Thank you to all of you for sharing your creativity and amazing products with the winners in this along!
I actually got to knit 7 pairs of socks myself this summer! There is absolutely no way that would have been possible without Beth and all of our blog readers! Beth was an organizational wizard and the rest of our blog readers were on the ball and ready to go when we needed them. They each donated their own time out of their busy days and made a huge contribution to the along. Thank you all so much! Not having to worry about that part of the behind the scenes operations was such a relief and a help to me, I can not tell you!
I’d also like to thank all of you that participated in each of the contests. I hope you found them fun and interesting and maybe even a challenge.
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank YOU! If you are reading this or your name is over there on the sidebar, you were an integral part of this along, no matter how much or how little you participated. Everyone who followed along and/or participated helped to make the Summer of Socks what it was. There wouldn’t have been much of an along with out you!
Finally, we’ve come to the moment that many of you have been waiting for. The announcement of the winners of the Most Socks Contest!
First though, I need to get some bad news out of the way. Unfortunately, only three people participated in the Crochet division of this contest. Sadly, that was not enough entries for the contest to run as planned. However, our generous sponsors came through again and agreed that the three participants should get something for their effort. Therefore Zuleika, Dawn and Andrea will each be receiving a skein of yarn as a consolation prize and a thank you for participating. The remaining skeins of yarn that were tagged for this contest were redistributed to the prize pool for the other contests. Thanks so much ladies and I’m sorry that we weren’t able to have the contest as scheduled!
In much better news, the Knitting Division was a huge success! We had plenty of participants and many wonderful pairs of socks were knit. As many of you have no doubt noticed, there were two knitters that jumped out to an early lead in this contest. Before we knew it they had completed 20 pairs of socks! Then 30! Then more! In the last couple of weeks, they’ve been knitting it out, head to head, back and forth. It was anyone’s guess who would win. Only in the last few days did it start to become clear. The magic number for one knitter was 37. That was it, she just couldn’t go on. That amazing knitter who is the runner up in this contest is
Cookie!!
37 pairs of socks is an incredible feat and despite not going home with the grand prize, Cookie will be receiving one prize skein of yarn for her efforts. After knitting that many pairs of socks, I couldn’t let her go home empty handed!
That means our winner with an unbelievable total of 42 pairs of socks goes to
Jeannie!!!!!!!
I have to admit when Jeannie took the lead early on I didn’t think she would last. I’d seen it before, start out strong but run out of steam in the end. Boy was I wrong!! Jeannie did keep going strong, day after day, gorgeous pair after gorgeous pair of socks. I am a pretty dedicated sock knitter, but I don’t think I’ve even knit 42 pairs of socks total so far in my life, much less one summer! Jeannie, congratulations to you!! You are an inspiration to us all and you are a very deserving winner in this contest. Now go rest those hands! 
Thank you again to everyone for a great summer. I’ve been asked by several people if there will be another along next summer and right now, I just can’t be sure. If there is, I’ll be sure to post about it here when it happens. This blog will remain online until further notice so you can still come back here to reference some of the things we’ve talked about this summer. I will however, be closing the comments in the next couple of weeks (I sure don’t need the spam!).
In addition, I would like to encourage you all to please e-mail me at Jessica [at] zarzuelaknitsandcrochets [dot] com if you have any comments about the along, or suggestions for improvement in case I decide to do this again next summer. There is always room for improvement and I am very open to any ideas you may have!
Finally, if you are attending the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival next month, I hope you’ll stop me and say hello! I would love to meet you in person!
Thanks again for a great summer everyone!
Happy Sock Making!! 
I’m very disappointed by this and I would really like this contest to happen. Those of you who have submitted have put in an awful lot of work and I really appreciate it and want to be able to recognize your effort. So in the hope that there might be four more people that just ran out of time, I am extending the deadline on this contest to next Saturday September 8th at 10pm EST. If you just couldn’t quite make it, here’s your chance to get your design in.
