Skill + 1UP - 2KCBWDAY2

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I am going to cheat a little bit with today's topic because looking over last year's projects, I was struck by how safe my knitting choices were. There were a lot of repeat knits and easy (but enjoyable) projects which required no new skills on my part. Although I did learn to knit with beads and made this bracelet for my mother-in-law for Christmas.

The skill that I am most proud of was achieved in February of this year. First, a little background. My aversion to sewing seams and various other finishing tasks is quite extreme and mostly have to do with past failures such as this one:

Notice the bulkiness of the "set-in sleeves", which were backstitched, overstitched and every darn way stitched in. Over the years, I have compensated for this fear of finishing by learning the art of avoidance. My preferred method for knitting sweaters is top-down or bottom-up, with little to no seaming involved. So the above failure was eventually frogged and turned into this:

28thirty

Still, the fact that the majority of the patterns that I coveted was automatically dismissed because of the amount of finishing involved bugged me. I was living a knitting life of fear.

           
                                                      But then came Donut.

Donut the Sock Monster

Knitting this little guy taught me so much. As anyone who has made a toy knows, oftentimes there is a lot of fussy finishing and seaming involved. Assembling Donut to my youngest niece's exacting standards required the patience of Job. But look at those seams, properly mattress stitched in.

Never again will I be put off by the amount of seaming a project requires. Fear has turned into exciting possibilities!