Look Ma - I'm Knitting!

My grandmother was the first one to teach me to cast on and the knit stitch. So I started to create a scarf for my cousin/best friend/roommate at the time. But Grandma never taught me to stop knitting, so this scarf has been sitting unfinished for approximately six years...by far my longest running UFO (Unfinished Object).

One of my goals for 2012 was to learn to knit (and how to stop), so I signed up for Knit Lab at Craftsy during their Christmas sale. And let me tell you it was awesome!!

The course was easy to follow, and Stefanie Japel moved slowly enough for beginners to understand yet fast enough so that the course wasn't boring. It covered casting-on, knitting, purling, increases, decreases, finishing (yay!), and reading patterns. All in all the course was almost 7 hours long so it was a great deal. The crafty forum itself is amazing - not only can you watch the lessons wherever you have Internet, but you can also take your own notes and post questions which are then answered by Stefanie herself! Plus I rewatched many of the lessons over and over again. I can't wait to take another course!

To learn the basic techniques taught in the class you create the Lacey Keyhole Scarf. I finished blocking mine last Wednesday night (punch for the class) using a ball of yarn given to me from a coworker last year (punch for the stash and for the finished project).

Details of the Lace

While you can tell that it is a first knitting project, I really love how it turned out! I used it in it's headband form for some Fruit Ninja on the XBox. Stylin' and Slicin'!

While I was on a roll I went ahead and finished up the scarf I've been working on for the past six years.

Finally Done!!

 That's four punches in one post! 

Completed Card!

Now it may seem silly to include finishing a project as a punch, but honestly, I don't mind buying things if I'm actually going to use them. My current problem is that my crafting habits are all planning and no finishing. If you were to create a punch card/reward system what would you include?