Why do we knit?

After all that whining about the multiple fingers on a glove I have almost finished the palm of the second Norwegian glove last night! ^^ All what's left are the fingers, which I'm planning on knitting tonight and move on to other projects. Thank you for the compliments! *^v^*

I was inspired to ask myself this question by the post by Grumperina, where she talked about the lacy socks she finished knitting and answered the reader's question about the comfort of wearing them.

Why do we knit?
Not for money, that's for sure, because no money can buy the hours spent on concentrating on some intricate lace pattern, counting rows and stitches, operating several colours at a time, paying attention to decreases and increases, ect. (yes, we sometimes sell what we knit, but we rarely knit for sale)
We sometimes knit gifts for our friends and families.
We don't knit because we really really need the sixth sweater, the fifth pair of gloves, the ninth scarf, another pair of socks (wait, there is always a need for another pair of socks, isn't it? *^v^*). We want those items but we don't really need them, it's not the life or death situation (especially if we can buy them ready-made for the low prices).
It's not even the case of comfort, because sometimes projects are so weird in their form that wearing them wouldn't be very comfortable, but we knit them anyway just to see the final result.

We knit for pleasure.
For the pure fun and joy of operating with two metal or wooden sticks and a thread.
For the curiosity whether we are going to get the item as presented in the pattern or how would it differ.
For the process of clickety-click that gives a result - a shaped fabric.
For the sheer bliss of making something with our own hands.
To test our manual and math skills.
To be praised. (Yes! We all like to be noticed and praised for a good job done! ^^)

Or am I talking about my reasons for knitting? *^v^*

So, just for the pleasure of knitting I joined Mystery Stole 3 last night. This time the quest is a stole with or without beads and call me a chicken but I'm doing mine without them. I decided that it's too early for me to try beaded knitting, a complicated stole pattern knit from a chart is enough at this stage. ^^
I'll be knitting my version in black, using the yarn in the picture (covered in cat hair, sorry...). Two clues has been already posted so I am a bit behind the schedule, but I hope to catch up quickly.

I'll be also starting my very first sweater - or a prelude to a proper sweater, because this one has short sleeves. ^^ Yes, together with millions of other knitters around the world I'll be knitting Tomato from Knitting Daily. The pattern is free you only need to register to be able to download it.

I chose orange cotton for the body and green acrylic for the stripe, because every tomato needs a stem and green leaves, right? *^v^* Keep your fingers crossed, because I'm scared of sweaters...

And last, but not least, (in fact it should be the first topic of my post because this was the first thing I saw in the post box when I left my apartment this morning), I got a parcel from Ambermoggie with three British knitting magazines, yikes! *^v^* Thank you very much, your pack with something special is on the way!
I had a chance to look through them on the subway when I was going to a yarn wholesaler (was there a better destination? ^^) and I have some favourites. Who knows, if I succeed in Tomato I may like knitting blouses and I may choose something from one of those magazine as my next project! *^v^*