This week on the Post we have socks and sock-knitting, themes which run through so many Persephone books written at a time when it was a major task to keep a family's feet warm and dry. Some knitters, such as Louisa in Greenbanks, do this with love. She knits for her adored but wayward son in South Africa - she thinks the socks there can't be good enough for him - and in the past has washed his socks herself in secret (technically it's a maid's job), carefully pulling the toes out to make sure they dry properly. The painting is A Woman Knitting (mid-C20, unknown artist).