SP 11 Contest Number 4

Post a picture of your first finished object and your most recent finished object and talk about how you feel you've improved in your knitter since the first.

As I said to swap hostess Robyn, this contest made me laugh - I'm going to have to get creative with the first finished object part since I donated the first finished object to charity quite some time ago... Back with contest number one with the Sock It To Me swap, I talked about my start in knitting here.

If you look at the picture here, you will find my buddies Mackey and Mumphrey wearing what I believe are the oldest finished objects that I still have access to. Yes, I both designed and knit their Icelandic style sweaters. It was the early 80s. I had knit Icelandic sweaters for myself, my sisters, my father, my grandfather, etc. and had to do something with the leftover bits and pieces - so the monkeys all got sweaters, too. (Yes - there are more of them, but you really don't want to know...) I believe that those sweaters were knit in early 1982.

Having finished a couple of things this week, the most recent finished object is much easier! Both of my sons do archery and when I saw this pattern, I knew that I had to make it. Older Son's was finished this week. I've explained to both of them that this does not imply that they get points for hitting the bullseye on their brother's head!

How has my knitting improved since I started knitting? Well, I now know the difference between the front and the back of my stitches. I can either cast on or off in a variety of ways so that I can choose whichever method is most appropriate for the project at hand. I know the difference between left leaning and right leaning decreases. I know a number of different ways to increase my stitches... I've come a long way!