I learned to knit just a few months back when I was at home for a while in between changing jobs. I am just a beginner (I haven't yet made a sweater as I can't shape armholes and knitting a cabled stitch is still on my "to learn" list), but it is incredible how many things you can make with just knitting and purling.
My first project was a scarf and hat for myself. I always start experimenting on my own self and I did the same with my first cooking experiments as well. The scarf slowly got better from one end to the other. The hat was a funny 3 pointed one. I would rate it as a C+ at best, not more.
Next came a small blanket (the size of a crib blanket) for my furry four legged son, Mota Mao. I made four swatches and sewed them up together and added a garter stitch border to it. Since my son is a baby (and will always be a baby to me), I chose soft pastel shades of pink, blue, lemon and white for him. The four squares are in garter, stockinette, rib and broken rib - all that can be done by simple knits and purls. Mota loves this blanket that his Momma made for him and curled up on it the moment I laid it down :-)
I wanted to gift Arnab, my husband, an afghan for our anniversary but I realized that it is taking too long to make a swatch afghan. So I'll postpone this to his birthday for which I'll have five more months to work on it :-) This afghan is in shades of blue and the swatches are - 4X4 ribs, broken rib and moss stitches. I am sewing the swatches so that they look like diamonds instead of cliched square tiles.
My current projects are blanket and hat sets for preemies which I am knitting for charity. I am making the first blanket in broken rib stitch with a garter border. The matching hat will have a 1X1 rib border and a broken rib body. For the next set I have cabled designs in mind in baby pink and white. I also got a one-pound ball of yarn that looks like candies on white frosting and it is sooooft :) I'll need to make cute layettes and blankets and hats with that. One good thing about knitting for preemies is you can really finish a hat or booties over a weekend (if you can just knit for an hour or two a day at most). If you love to knit and do give your friends and family hand made knitted gifts, please make sure you knit some for charity too. Just imagine how great the feeling is when you think the first gift a baby would get after stepping into the world has been made by you. Also, when you knit for babies, they wouldn't care if a stitch is a little skewed or the pattern is not intricate. They will only appreciate the warmth (in both senses) your knitted gifts bring to them.
Happy knitting...
