Do you gift your best project or keep it? Genuinely torn

I gift almost everthing and I've never once regretted it, but I did learn to make myself wait a week before saying yes. My mum asked for the king size granny throw I'd spent two winters on, all in Caron Simply Soft, and I nearly caved on the spot. Instead I told her I'd decide once it was blocked and dry. By the time the week was up it felt less like losing a piece of myself and more like sending it somewhere it whould actually get used. It lives on her sofa now and she sends me photos of the cat asleep on it, which honestly beats keeping it in a cupboard. On the fear of peaking, I was sure my first big lace shawl was as good as my hands would ever get. Two years on I'd picked up enough to make something better without even trying. Your skills don't slide backwards, and that blanket taught you plenty the next one will use. For the slump after a big finish, I go small and selfish. Socks or a hat for me, out of the leftovers, no deadline, done in a couple of weeks. Right now it's a ribbed hat in the leftover green from the throw, and it's alredy got me itching to start the next blanket.

I keep my best work, and after fifteen years of crocheting I've stopped apologising for it. Most things still leave the house, but there are maybe five pieces I'd flatly refuse to hand over, starting with my first proper jumper, which fits me terribly and lives in the spare room wardrobe anyway. It marks the moment I stopped being a beginner, and that's worth more to me than a thank-you. The one I regret letting go was a circular lace shawl in a teal merino I'd hoarded for two years, close to two hundred hours of work, handed to a coworker who thanked me once and then, as far as I could tell, let the cat sleep on it. So I'd give your sister the blanket, but photograph it in daylight first, write down the hook size and yarn amounts, and note which joins you'd do differently next time. Nothing stops you making a second one, slower, in colours you pick just for yourself. On picking the next project, go small and almost boring on purpose. After my last big afghan I made a plain top-down hat from leftovers, four evenings all in, and it reset my head. You can't follow a months-long piece with another months-long piece and expect to feel anything but flat.

Reading this as someone who's only ever finished one lumpy scarf, and it took me four months, so a whole blanket since autumn sounds unreal. I do have a question though, what does blocked mean? Is that when you wet it and pin it out so it sits flat? I keep seeing people say they blocked something like it's an obvious step and I've never done it once. Also on the giving away thing, I gave my scarf to my neighbour and she wears it on dog walks, and honestly seeing that makes me want to start the next one more than keeping it would have. Maybe that's the same idea but with much smaller stakes.

I'd push back on the 'gift almost everything, no regrets' line, beacuse I did regret it once and it changed how I handle this. Gave a cousin an aran I'd spent a whole winter on, and she washed it wrong, stretched the sleeves, then shoved it in a bin bag when she moved. Not saying don't give, but match the piece to the person. Someone who treats handmade like a shop-bought item gets hats and dishcloths from me now. The heirloom-level stuff goes to people who ask how it was made before asking if they can have it.

Been making things for nigh on forty years and here's a trick my mother used, back when everyone worked from paper patterns and wrote thier notes in pencil in the margins. Before anything good leaves the house, I take a photo of it laid out flat, plus a close-up of the stitch work, and keep a bit of the yarn in a little envelope with the date. So the blanket goes to your sister, but the record of it stays with you on the shelf. And do write out the washing instructions on a card for her, sewn on a corner or tucked in the bag. Half the heartbreak in this hobby comes from a gift being thrown in a hot wash.

Update: took the one week rule from the first reply and told my sister I'd answer after blocking was done properly. Still leaning towards giving it, but the story about the cousin's aran ending up in a bin bag got to me, so now I'm wondering, do you actually say anything when you gift something? Like washing instructions, or does that spoil it?