Why it's unwise to knit socks for children

The short answer to the question: why not knit socks for children? is because they might like them.

There's your pre-Halloween chill for the day.  Is there anything more terrifying than the relentless approach of sock-ravenous children, their mouths gaping with pleas for more socks, when you are already knitting as fast as you can?

To say nothing of the fact that their feet grow.

That's right.  You can spend all those hours knitting socks for those children, only to find them back at your door the next winter holding up the socks you already knit them and looking all plaintive.

Gah.

And finally, really the ultimate doom:  handknit socks look so cute on small people, it's hard not to fall in love with the idea of being responsible for some.

I know all these things and yet I foolishly knit socks for children last winter - four pairs in total - and thereby unleashed a pair of sock monsters whose feet are a size or so bigger now than they were then.  So much so, that even the ankles are a bit narrow for them now, so I can't just snip off the toes of the socks and knit them longer (my original escape route should they turn out to like wearing handknit wool.)

Turns out if I knit new socks for these kids this winter I'll be knitting them in my exact size, but with skinny-friendly ribbing all down the leg (which means I can't just gift them a pair I've been knitting already).  Based on my track record that means I'll be tied up with socks for a month minimum for just one pair.  And next winter?  Yikes.  We're probably looking at a repeat of Man Socks.

So: cautionary tale of the day.  Knitting socks for children is a slippery slope!