Being Selfish

I've knit roughly 20 projects or so, all with an intended purpose and recipient in mind.  As stated in a previous post, I loved doing it - I enjoy giving handmade gifts (I prefer the term handmade as opposed to homemade.  Homemade makes it sound like shoddy workmanship to me).  Some people may prefer a gift card or something bought from a store, but if that's the case, they just don't get something I've made.

It seems that even though I find patterns I like for myself, I never truly get down to knitting the pattern.  I always find something else I want to make for a friend or family member (i.e. my son!).  Again, I love doing this - but I'm beginning to realize that I need to be a bit more selfish in my projects and knitting time.  So I've made a new rule (we'll see how well I follow it!).

Guidelines are as follows - and they're pretty simple:
1. I must have a project on my needles for myself at all times.  When one "me" project is finished, I must find and start another.  I may also be flexible with this rule and instead say - one craft project for myself must always be going (for example: sewing a needle case for myself).
2. The project can be large or small - Size doesn't matter!  It does not matter how difficult or large my other projects are - just as long as I'm doing something for me.
3. When choosing a project for myself, try to find something that challenges my skills.

Easy enough, right?  So to start with, I cast on Traveling Woman while in Colorado.  I was hesitant at first because I've never knit a shawl.  I had trouble conceptualizing how the stitches would read. So I just stopped thinking and started knitting.  I'm about 2/3 through the set-up rows which are mainly stockinette stitch.  I would imagine this is the easiest part of the pattern.  I'm looking forward to the actual lace knitting.  Check back again for updates and I would imagine this is something I'll work on intermittently between other projects. :)