Giving knitting a second chance

So recently I've been getting burned out on knitting. Making baby socks in a production line style for relatives and the wifes booth will do that. I found myself spending less and less time knitting and more and more time procrastinating.

That is, until thursday.

Needing more yarn for more (ugh) baby socks, I head down to the LYS. On display is my bag that I entered for the "Felted Bag" contest. Under it is "First Place". I was shocked.

Now, let me back up a little here and tell you about my contest entry. I found out about it late, and only had a week to design it and get it done. I knitted it at furious pace. Half the time I didn't even bother counting any stitches, and I'm pretty positive I had a very uneven number per side. Well, long story short, I handed it in still a little damp, but at least I had gotten it done.

I had won. HOW?! I asked about the judging, thinking I had gotten the "oh look, a guy knitting" sympathy vote. Much to my surprise, the judging was done by a local design firm thats "in the business", and all the bags were just given numbers and had no names attached to them. I had won on my bags merits alone. Very shocked. Suddenly I'm thinking more and more about knitting.

Friday comes and I get an email about a design I had entered in an open submission call for a new book on knit graffiti. They liked my design and are going to use it in the book. Once I picked myself up off the floor I quickly replied my thanks and appreciation. WOW!

Ok, so twice in two days my knitting was given credit on its merits alone. It was really the boost I needed to stick with it. I honestly can't wait for the summer to be over so I can be done with these baby socks and focus more on projects I will enjoy and learn from. Well, just between you and me, I've cast on a wicked reversible cabled scarf, but shhhhh!