Getting There...

So I have taken stock of my finished knitting projects since November, and realized I have actually completed 7 projects! Wow! I guess I am definitely showing signs of improvement in both speed and skill. I think I still knit slowly, I'm just getting better at finding little bits of time to knit with. It helps that I take my projects along with me in my little knitting bag that can stash into pretty much any purse.

I still don't think I'm skilled enough (or patient enough) to complete a sweater. The last one I tried to crochet was such a disappointment. After running out of yarn, I bought more that was a non dye lot yarn and it didn't match up at all. So I had to wear it as a vest, but it just didn't cut it. At least from that I've learned my lesson of not underestimating how much yarn you need. Better off having extras than not enough.

Most of the projects I've done this winter have been fingerless mittens of varying sizes from toddler to adult. I started with the Alice Cullen inspired fingerless gloves, then made a pair of Sucky Thumb mitts from Ravelry, then made multiples of these for family and friends. From there I moved up to the Irish cabled fingerless gloves for one of my sister's Christmas gifts. I wanted it be special, so I ordered her yarn from fabulousyarn.com and I was so happy when it arrived. Skinny Dyed Blue Sky Alpacas 100% organically grown cotton... it felt soooo good to work with. However, I am still not too experienced with cabling. I had only one small sized cable needle, and found out it was making my stitches too tight. So I tried using one of my extra dpns to hold on the cables, which kept sliding off. Then I'd drop a stitch here and there. Then I used metal dpns instead of my wooden ones to speed things up, as it was getting dangerously too close to the Christmas mailing deadline. Wrong choice: I had entire rows just slide off the needle when I went to pick up my project out of the bag. Back to the wooden needles. Back to the yarn store to find a solution - happy silicon protectors! Sigh. This pair of mitts ended up totally missing the deadline for Christmas shipping, and finally arrived in England today. I've been eagerly waiting to find out what she thought of them, and was ecstatic to find out that the mitts were indeed received with joy. :) :) :)

This got my confidence up, and I made the exact same pair for practice in another colour of the same lovely yarn. This time I got the pair of mitts done in only a week, and only dropped stitches twice. I had to frog two rows, but only because I was knitting late at night and lost track of my count. I knitted a few extra rows past a cable row and had to go back. But they turned out nicely as well, and I will deliver them this week to their recipient who is looking forward to wearing them. I tried them on as well, for this photo.



Mind you, I have not finished blocking them so don't mind that. They feel so nice to wear! I am going to make a pair for myself. But when? It's so hard to resist knitting things for other people when I get to do the whole "Ta Da" thing when they are finished... and see that smile on someone else's face. It's so tempting...

Maybe if I do a 5 to 1 ratio of things for others and then a little something for me?
What's your system? How do you choose when to make something for yourself????
Maybe because I'm still new at this. Does it get easier in time? Seeing how many UFO's my friends have, I doubt it.