1. Swatch.
Yes, I know, we all hate to swatch. But we also need to get over it. Swatching is a great way to improve your knitting, and it doesn't have to be painful. Try a new stitch pattern, or a new technique. Try out that fancy lace pattern that's in your next cardigan, so when you inevitably mess it up, you're not messing up your entire garment. Swatching is for far more than just determining your gauge (although you should use it for that, too!). It's a low-commitment way to learn a lot. You can try out different needles to see which size produces a fabric you like. You can (and should) wash and block your swatch to see how your eventual project will turn out. You can learn about the yarn--is it bouncy? does it pill if you even look at it? does it have good stitch definition?--and determine its suitability for what you want to knit. I promise, swatching is your friend.
2. Mess up, and fix it.
The day I became a truly confident and adventurous knitter was the day another knitter gently pointed out to me that I had miscrossed a cable many rows down my project. I could have left it, but I knew it would always bother me. But I definitely did not want to rip out hours of work. So I learned, out of necessity, how to unravel and re-knit cables. And I couldn't even do it with a stiff drink in my hand, because I was pregnant! Long story short, I succeeded, and I realised that I didn't need to be afraid of my knitting. I was in charge of it, and it wasn't actually rocket science after all.
So here's another use for swatching: knit something, and make a mistake on purpose (can you spot the intentionally miscrossed cable above?). Then fix that mistake without ripping out the entire thing. Maybe you want to practice dropping all your stitches from your needles, frogging a few rows, and recovering the live stitches. It's always helpful to be able to grab a dropped stitch and carry it back up again, or to change knits to purls and vice versa. If you love lace, you should definitely learn to recognise and fix a missed yarn-over on the next row. And yes, if you love cables, it is invaluable to be able to unravel and re-knit a miscrossed cable. Feeling truly adventurous? Knit a lace pattern, rip out a few rows, and see if you can get your work back on the needles without the help of a lifeline. The more confident you are in your ability to fix errors, the more confident you will be at knitting in general.
3. Change a pattern, or design your own.
The other thing that turned me into a confident knitter was designing my first pattern (see above!). It all came down to math, I realised (okay, math and some basic knitting techniques). I'd always thought that knitting designers were magical, mythical creatures--until I needed a pattern that didn't exist. When you design your own pattern, or modify one that already exists, you begin to truly understand how elements work together (or don't), how to make an item fit just the way you want it to, and how to generally be in charge of your own knitting project. You can knit exactly what you want, and there is great power in that.
What have you done to improve your knitting?
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