Our 2012 Vanna’s Choice Contest Winner Visits with Vanna White

Earlier this month, our 2012 Vanna’s Choice Contest winner–“Gramma” Nancy Nielsen–and her family flew out to Anaheim, California to meet Vanna White as part of her prize. She showed off her incredible one-of-a-kind baby hat and bootie sets, including the winning elephant set, to Vanna and members of Lion Brand’s staff. She also shared the story of how she got started creating these “Gramminal” sets.

Nancy told me that her daughter, as the wife of a naval officer, was in charge of social happenings among the families of the crews, including celebrating births. Finding that they were having quite a few births a year, she asked her mom to help her come up with a more affordable option for baby gifts, and that’s how Nancy started creating her one-of-a-kind sets otherwise known as “Gramminals.”

Listen to my interview with Nancy here:

(This excerpt is from our next episode of YarnCraft–our podcast, an online radio show. Check out the entire episode on Tuesday, Feb. 5.)

While there, Nancy also drew from 100 envelopes for a chance to win a grand prize of $100,000. Unfortunately, she didn’t win the $100,000, but she did have a great trip with her family, filled with memories and fun!

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Want to enter this year’s contest, a story sweepstakes? Click here to learn more! Enter by February 15th.

(Please note that there are NOT yet patterns for Nancy’s projects, but we’re hoping to make some available in the future. In the meantime, click here to check out animal hat patterns on LionBrand.com–in fact, Nancy mentions in the interview that she got started with Lion Brand’s patterns.)