I've arrived... where I'm not exactly sure..

So last year when I began knitting, I did it because I wanted to buy a ball of yarn, but I couldn't justify the purchase without knowing what to do with it. (on this note, youd' think I would be able to say I couldn't buy another ball of yarn without having something specific to knit with it, but it doesn't not work that way apparently!)  Anyway!  So I went in to the yarn store and enquired about classes... I admit to having it in the back of my mind that this would be like the time I took a pottery class... I'm no potter, so we should all be able to figure out how that turned out!  I thought I'd take this class... muddle along and then be done with it in my never ending search for a hobby.  Turns out, I'm a teeny tiny bit proficient at knitting.  I was a GOOD student.  Prior to the class (which they delayed twice, and I almost cancelled out of once), I bought my yarn (turns out, my first yarn to knit with was one of the most luxurious yarns out there and there's a whole cult following), bought my needles and turned on youtube.  Taught myself how to cast on (how to get the first row of stitches hanging on to the needles for all you non-knitters) and how to make the knit stitch.  Practiced for a few days and then found out that my manager at work is a VERY good knitter so I dragged all my stuff to work on a Thursday and we shut the door for my one hour 1:1 weekly meeting, blazed through the work stuff and then she showed me two other ways to cast on (there are at least 4 dozen) and helped me....
When it came to the class, I had already known how to cast on and knit, so I was a good student.... I sort of thought this might be something that I would keep up... altho again, in the back of my head, since i was/am a slow knitter, I knew enough about myself to know that I'd probably get bored and frustrated by the slow rate of production and gratificaton and give it up. 
Apparently that wasn't true either, as I've spent MONTHS knitting things... maybe only a row at a time, or maybe a full day stranded in the airport, but either way I knit almost every day and I'm happy to see my items grow and I'm happy to put the work into them every day to see them progress.... Maybe I don't know myself as well as I thought I did.
Fast forward one year.  I've made 3 cabled handbags, 3 lace scarves; 2as gifts (2 of my three ONLY gifts except for whatever Boy wants), 3 lace cowls (two of which have been repurposed, one of which was the third gift... one as a hot water bottle cover and one as a really weird looking tea cozy) 3 triangular lacey shawls (one of which I burned a hole in back in October... good thing I was drunk when it happened... it's fixed now tho) 1 hat that I made up the pattern for, 1 pair of fingerless cabled mittens, 1 round lace shawl (LOVE), a 2.5' sock monkey and I'm working on a large lace stole (wide scarf), a 7' lace blanket and about to start a new triangle shawl and about three dozen cat toys for the spca.

Anyway!  All this is to say that while I knew I wanted to learn to knit, I also didn't think I'd keep it up and now, look at me!
The icing on this year of knitted cake is that yesterday I was down at my local yarn store and I brought Smungkee in to show them... and he's now sitting in the front window of the store!  MY MONKEY!  is in the window of the biggest and best knitting store in Vancouver!  What the hell!?!
Here's a couple pictures of him and then below some pictures of my year of knitting... because I like to toot my own horn!

Below is the round lace shawl... I worked on it for about 8 months off and on.  Below that is a triangle lace shawl that I wear every day... below that is a cabled handbag I made and lined and below that is a close up of a scarf I made my mom for her birthday in which I hand strung hundreds of beads so that it was prettier... the yarn is 100% Angora... BUNNNEEEEEEEE

So there you have it... My little buddy is in the window of a yarn store... a little buddy that I thought a year ago I'd never get anywhere close to making... pretty friggen cool!