Knitting resolutions

Generally, I'm not big on new year's resolutions. However, since knitting is a new thing for me, I thought some goals might be a good gauge (har, gauge) of my progress for the new year.
With that in mind, I hope to accomplish the following in oh eight:
1) knit a sweater for myself
2) take (at least) one knitting workshop/class
3) learn how to knit socks
4) make baby/toddler gifts for the people who had kids last year (Tricia, Linsey)
5)allow enough time before Christmas so that I don't give up on knitted gifts
6)learn entrelac
7)become better equipped to fix mistakes in my knitting, rather than "ribbiting" my way to insanity

Less stress

Considering this is my first Christmas as a knitter, I decided that I was being pretty hard on myself about knitting gifts. There are many years ahead of me in which to knit lovelies for my loved ones. I think the scarf I was making for my mom will be frogged, and reknit, as I realized it is entirely too wide to be functional. I'm working on a hat for my cousin, and I may make one or two more hats, but that's it. Everyone else will just have to wait. Feeling like I HAD to finish was sucking all the fun out of knitting. In the meantime, I started a new and fun project.

*Note Bellakat's paw pointing to the yarn. She's become quite the ham when I bring out the camera.
At some point in the near future, this will be the front of a pillow to match my bedroom. I plan on doing the back in a sea gray color. The yarn is Shine Worsted by Knitpicks, which I got on sale a few months ago. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but this makes great sense, and it helps use up yarn. Even though I'm very new at knitting, I've racked up quite a stash, and I've decided to stop buying yarn (mostly), and focus on using what I have. I bought it for a reason, right??

Things I've learned

I'm improving at determining how much yarn to pull when casting on. I used to pull way too much, and then I'd have a really long tail. I'm not perfect at it, but there's definitely a difference.
I know that I should trust my instinct on knitting. If it seems too tight, it probably is. If I think I should wait before attempting something complicated, even if just until the next day, I probably should put the knitting down.
I decided that I'm probably not ready for the Central Park Hoodie, so I've put that down, and am starting a very basic sweater, which I found in a Paton's pamphlet. I don't want to jump into something so ambitious that I get discouraged, but I've picked something that I think I'll be able to wear often.
I've determined that the scarf I've been knitting for my mother is entirely too freaking wide. She'll never wear it in it's current state. I'm just glad I didn't get all the way to the end before I decided that. I may just knit her a hat instead. That seems to be my favorite thing as of late, but it's such a nice, small, manageable project.
I'm blocking the hat I finished for my sister, because it is pretty tight. I'm going to knit a few rows of this new sweater I'm attempting, and then I should probably go to bed, since we'll have lots of company tomorrow.