To-do for Christmas list

Half a sock (need to buy another ball of yarn)
Pair of socks - blue (yarn bought)
Wrist-warmers - purple (started)
Wrist-warmers - red
Wrist-warmers - yellow/black stripes
Wrist-warmers - black
Adult hat and glove set x 4
Child hat and glove set - red/blue stripes
Child hat and glove set - red/black stripes
Child hat and glove set - blue/black stripes

Well, what do you know?

I learnt something about myself today - knitting gives me confidence.  A year ago I would never have dreamed of striking up a conversation with a total stranger on a hour long bus journey like I did today.

Confidence has always been an issue for me and I was diagnosed years ago as having a social phobia which means it's very hard for me to talk to and interact with people I don't know (which is one of the reasons that I love the net so much, tbh) and yet, ask me to talk to someone about my knitting and I can.

Knitting is one of the few things in this world that I know I'm good at.  I'm not great at it, and I probably never will be, but I'm learning new things and getting better at it all the time and that's giving me confidence as well.  I know in my head that I'm not, but there's always been a part of me that's been convinced that I'm stupid and useless etc.

Now I know I'm not and that's done more for my self-esteem than any amount of therapy or what have you could have done.

So the person who invented knitting, whoever that may be, I thank you.  You have honestly changed my life in ways I would never have imagined (not to mention my bank balance which is at an all time low thanks to my habit of heading to my LYS when I'm down/bored/stressed).