a second life for your socks

Don't throw away your (clean) socks.

You can use them for many purposes.

Like covering a paintbrush when you have to take a break.
After putting a wet sock over the brush and some plastic over it all, you can put the brush in a cool place for a while.

Just unwrap when you resume your painting and you can go on without spending time to clean it and having to start with a wet brush.