It's done, it's done, it's finally done! I've finished my Lapidary!
Started the day after Christmas, Lapidary by Brittany Wilson was the yarn and pattern kit that came in my December 2014 Indie KnitCrate. After two months spent working on orders for other people, I couldn't wait to knit up a project for myself. I don't typically make anything for my own wardrobe (which is horrible marketing if you're in the knitting business looking to turn a profit), and it super stinks when I want to make something, but have to put it off for weeks at a time.
Anyway, I was dying to get my hands on this project, and I'm happy to say I saw it through to the end. I knit on Lapidary almost exclusively for three weeks, a feat unheard of and often celebratory in my world. We experienced and fixed dropped stitches together, as well as sat through the new season of Downton Abbey and sipped many cups of loose leaf tea freshly brewed in my favorite glass tea pot. Lapidary is the first project I've successfully soaked and blocked, all using my new blocking mats from KnitPicks. Indeed, I finally felt like a "real" knitter.
And I think that's why I lost interest in blogging about my knits for some time: I wasn't doing anything new. Almost everything I knit or crocheted was for a custom order, and each of those orders are made from patterns I've used a million times. It all became a little monotonous. It's not that I didn't enjoy it anymore, but it wasn't worth talking about because I'd already said what I've needed to say about those projects. It was time for something different.
So I'm happy to say that Lapidary has launched me into a new obsession: shawls. It's what spurred me to join Grace Akhrem's Crashing Waves KAL, plus another KAL that's Instagram-only. I consider myself an intermediate knitter, but wasn't making any intermediate projects. I feel like I can now truly say that I'm intermediate and understand more concepts than initially thought. How cool is that?
I know I've been on a KnitCrate bragging spree lately, but I truly believe that without my subscription, I wouldn't have ventured into this world for quite some time yet. Or at least had the patience to finish something using techniques I'd learned and never implemented. I plunged in after seeing what the talented blogger/podcaster KnitFitch was able to create with less than a year of knitting experience - I was blown away. And now, I feel like maybe someone will be blown away with what I can make, too.
In fact, I'm kind of blown away with myself.