Learning new things, being creative and challenging yourself is one of the greatest joys in life. In knitting, this means trying a new technique (Fish Lip Kiss Heel: it's a thing!), or yarn or even style of knitting. Try textured stitches, or mosaic knitting, or stranded color work. Knit with cotton or linen or even plastic. Knit Continental, English, or Peruvian! Add beads. make lace, and if you really want a new challenge, you can even knit backwards.
This is great fun, and many people have spent lifetimes enjoying the depth of knowledge to be explored in the fiber arts. However, there does come a time, as when making socks, when the knitter is denied that pleasure. When the first sock is done, and you ... have to do... the exact. same. thing. again.
Working on the first sock. Ah, simpler times.
Handmade socks are the bomb, but it takes time. Time you have to spend repeating what you just did, and not trying that unusual Celtic knot scarf you have your eye on. For example.
This problem is not mine alone, and it's called Second Sock Syndrome. We recently had the opportunity to travel, and I brought socks to work on. Socks are good travel knitting; they don't take up much space and you can spend lots of pleasurable knitting time on that sock. That one sock.
So, perseverance! I finished the rainbow sock, in the Jaywalker pattern, and I have even started on the second. The purple and blue sock only got as far as the last picture; it's in the Starflower pattern.
This is what I worked on when we returned from our travels:
A lovely Irish shawl made with Australian yarn, in Wandering Aran Fields
It's washed and blocking to dry; just need to sew buttons on in the next few days. So, still trying new things and having fun!
And eventually, probably, will finish those socks.