socks at hand

My mother has a friend who knits. I would consider her at least an intermediate knitter; she can increase, decrease, do short rows, follow a pattern and her stitches are very even. All of that wonderful self-patterning sock yarn captured her heart and imagination and she started to knit socks. She didn't finish any of the socks, but kept starting new ones. My mother asked if I would finish them for her so she could wear them at some point and I agreed.



The odd thing is that the socks were all finished at different places. Some were 'discarded' just after the cuff, some before the heel, some after the heel and one only required decreasing to shape the toe! My mind was boggled. I could understand if maybe she was worried about turning the heel, or got lost while picking up stitches for the gusset but these socks showed that she was able to do all of these things. And they all looked good too, even stitching, no gaps from picking up stitches. I asked mom to investigate.



It turns out that my mom's friend either gets lost in the pattern or loses interest in the sock at hand, like a knitting ADKD [attention deficit knitting disorder?] and is much more interested in learning what pattern the next ball of yarn will produce rather than in actually having a finished sock to have and to hold and to wear.

I have finished two pairs of socks with three more pairs to go. She has since purchased yarn to make about ten afghans.

Let it be known that I will not be finishing any afghans.