skill + 1UP

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week day 2: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

I've picked up a few new skills over the last year, but the biggest change from this year to last is my confidence. Picking up stitches at a sock gusset used to be something I dreaded. Was I picking up the right loops? Would I get the right number? Should I fudge it to get the correct number of stitches? Would I end up with holes? Would it look alright when done?

After another year of steady knitting practice it's as if I can see the stitches more clearly. The loops of the slipped stitches at the edges of the heel flaps seem to line up in an orderly fashion - there's no longer any doubt which to pick up onto my needle. I'm better at keeping track of my row counts, and better at recounting rows correctly when I forget, ending up with the correct number of slipped stitches ready for picking up. And practice, practice, practice has evened out my tension to give me a consistently good finished result. By golly, I think I've got this!

In the next day or two I need to figure out how to graft 2x2 rib so that I can finish my green baby blanket. Thank goodness for all the online resources, particularly Ravelry! Seems like there's a YouTube video for almost everything.