Creativity: Odd ways to use that spare sock

CONGRATULATIONS to the several hundred readers who wrote in with creative suggestions for using an odd sock, particularly those who included socks, which will be put to a good use selected from the following, by no means exhaustive, list:

As a polisher for shoes, furniture, floor or silver.

As a bag for shoes, camera, spectacles, money, billiard balls, fruit, hamster, small dog, rat, ferret, gerbil or odd socks.

With suitable holes as a coat or balaclava for furry animal.

As a cosh.

Stuffed as the head for a hobby horse.

To keep white wine cool or red wine warm; as a bottle protector in shopping basket.

Icing bag.

As a puppet to amuse children, or a ball to amuse dog.

Frozen as a boomerang. Unfrozen as a bag for boomerang.

Tea, paint or coffee strainer.

Starched, mounted and given as an award to the man who redesigned the Independent.

Stitched on as a belt pocket.

Stitched up and cut in half to make a small pair of socks.

Dyed black with other odd socks to make several pairs.

Put over head of small animal to pacify it.

Tourniquet, handkerchief.

Worn with another odd sock as a fashionable grunge pair.

Christmas stocking, egg cosy, tea cosy, hat for Barbie doll, oven glove, plastic coffee-cup holder.

Body bag for hamster.

Bracelet, headband, sweatband, mitten, knee protector.

Politician silencer, frostbite protector, golf-club protector.

Van Gogh ear warmer.

Thermal lagging for pipe.

Anti-spider device on bath pipe; anti-slip device on pogo stick.

Our Sock of the Week awards go to the following:

For practicality: To repair the pockets on a snooker or pool table (Sarah Jarrett).

For impracticality: To be worn with an odd shoe (Chris Walker).

For surrealism: Unravel it and use the wool to knit its mate. You will still have only one sock, but you will have peace of mind by knowing what happened to the other one (David Knipe).

Following the suggestion that an odd sock is the pupal form of a wire coat-hanger, this week's object is a wire coat- hanger. Please send your ideas to Creativity, The Independent, 40 City Road, London EC1Y 2DB. We shall publish the best and oddest next week.