Tag: knitting mistakes

That Liberating Feeling of Ripping Out Your Knitting Project

That Liberating Feeling of Ripping Out Your Knitting Project

Cynthia Coe

We’ve all been there. You start a knitting or crochet project. You’re well underway with it. And you hate it. What do you do? Soldier on, or rip it out and start over?

I found myself in this place with a knitted sweater recently. I had designed it myself, using expensive alpaca and wool yarn, in a deep red color. Since the yarn was a delicate fingerling weight using tiny needles, I had put hours upon hours of work into it. But I could tell it would be way, way too small for me.  What to do? 

Reader, I ripped out the entire project. All of it. And I felt liberated. Instead of keeping myself in a rut I couldn’t get out of, I got to re-think and start an entirely new project. 

When I ripped out my former sweater, I honestly did not regret the time I spent on it. As with all knitting projects, I enjoyed pleasant, restorative quiet time while making this sweater. I enjoyed knitting along while watching and listening to my favorite shows. Was this wasted time? Absolutely not. In fact, I considered the ripping out process as getting double the value for the money spent on this particular yarn. 

My former knitted sweater is now in the process of becoming a crocheted prayer shawl I’m making as a prototype for a new book. I have no regrets. Instead of suffering through a project I would never wear, I’m making something that will wrap around someone’s shoulders and fit perfectly, no matter the size of the person. 

Other crafters – woodworkers, painters, metal workers – may have to throw away or destroy projects that don’t work. I imagine that must hurt and be costly. As knitters and crocheters, we get to do something most people can’t do. We get a do-over. If a project isn’t working for us – for whatever reason – all we have to do is pull that piece of yarn and keep pulling until the project literally doesn’t exist anymore. Our flexible yarns give us the possibility of release from our mistakes and the possibility of a brand new start. 

Blessing for all the do-overs in your life, Cindy

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, interrelated stories about knitters and those for whom they knit and love. The sequel to this book, The Knitting Guild of All Saints, has been released! Available in paperback and on Kindle, included in Kindle Unlimited. 

Frogging Just Creates New Opportunities

Frogging Just Creates New Opportunities

Cynthia Coe

This past week, I gasped in horror as my cat leapt into my lap, pulling apart a delicate piece of knitting I held in my hands. I couldn’t blame Scamper the Cat. He just wanted to sit in momma’s lap and purr. It’s not like he intended to make me lose several stitches that proved impossible to get back on the knitting needles.

I had to admit, I didn’t like the design of the intricate lacing of the shawl I was working on. The middle of the work looked messy, and I didn’t realize how bad it looked until I had progressed far beyond the point of fixing it. I played with the idea of frogging (“rip it, rip it, rip it out” for those not familiar with the knitting term for unravelling your work and starting over). But I couldn’t bear to tear out several inches of work. I had dithered back and forth for days, unhappy with my design and wondering if I should rip it.

Scamper the Cat made the decision for me. As I looked at the hopeless state of my knitting work, I realized he had actually done me a favor. Taking a deep breath, I pulled out several days worth of knitting and got the work back to a place where I could both re-do my design and get the stitches back on my needles. (Yarnovers and frogging don’t mix, I’ve discovered.) My evening of knitting turned out much more relaxing than I intended; ripping out is pretty mindless work.

We knitters are lucky. For those of us who knit, there are do-overs in life. Not many crafts allow you the opportunity to completely start over on a failed project with the same materials and without having to throw out pricey supplies. In fact, if you’re a “process knitter” like me, you just get more knitting time in with the same skein of yarn.

So if you have to frog your work, just remember it’s no big deal. Your work might look better in the end, and for once in your life, you get a do-over.

Blessings, Cindy

Cynthia Coe is the author of The Prayer Shawl Chronicles, a collection of interrelated short stories about knitters and those they meet through knitting and sharing prayer shawls.