knitting confessions

So, I have been knitting for about 5-6 years and have NEVER knitted a guage swatch. Well, now that I think about it, I think I did knit 1 a couple years back. Not sure if I even knitted the whole thing, but I do remember now that it came out all wrong--and left me even more confused. This may have something to do with my resistance to paying attention to gauge. I also never had the patience for that kind of thing. Spending my time and yarn on something I would never really use, and wasting that time on yarn on something other than creating something beautiful. So, this morning I decided to really look at the guage on the first sock I just finished for my son.....8 spi. Turns out that was the exact guage the pattern I was using called for. I will mention that I had actually used needles one size bigger, than the pattern called for--which was apparently the perfect size. At this point as I have been obsessed with the idea of becoming an expert knitter--so I may just start my journey checking my gauge.