My Mother Was a Great Sock Knitter

This is a photograph of all of the socks my mother knit for me.  (A cool dozen.)  She began focusing on sock knitting some time around the turn of the century.  She became totally hooked on knitting socks with two circular needles after she read  Cat Bordhi's SOCKS SOAR ON TWO CIRCULAR NEEDLES.
For a little while, she knit socks for anyone who she thought would like them.  Then for a couple years, she started Christmas-knitting pairs of socks, alternating each year between the guys and the girls in our immediate family.  I know that 2003 (the year that my father died) was the first year that she knit Christmas socks for everyone in the family.  That would be 18 pairs of socks!  36 socks!!  Four children and their four spouses, along with 10 grandchildren, AND WE ALL HAVE TWO FEET!
Christmas 2008 was her last year to gift us with socks.  (Pancreatic cancer really sucks.)