Sock-knitting can also be a form of offering. Anne in Young Anne struggles with steel needles and a ball of buff-coloured wool, wanting to do something wifely for her husband Richard for Christmas. She does not knit with 'oiled efficiency' but she feels that knitting 'although painful, was comforting. It somehow reassured you. It made you feel like a wife. She wanted to feel like a wife. There were so many days when she didn't feel like on'. She produces a mismatched pair - like her and Richard - and his reaction is marvellous. This is Girl Knitting (c1940s, Newport Museum and Art Gallery) by Patricia Preece or Dorothy Hepworth.