I’m (mostly) taking the day off, just like I took yesterday, and part of Friday off. And since we really can’t go on a mini road trip because of Covid19, plus Michael wants to work on the addition while the sun is shining, my ‘days off’ look a lot like gardening and cleaning – to justify the knitting and reading, of course.
To that end, I cleaned my knitting drawers in the living room this morning. This involved pulling out a lot of abandoned half-finished projects, or outright failures. As I was organizing and packing things away (and vacuuming the drawers), I thought about how – when I post a picture of something I’ve knit (mostly over on Instagram) – I always get a number of comments in which people disparage themselves for not being as ‘productive or accomplished’ as I appear to be on social media.
So I decided I’d take some pictures and post these so-called failures just to show that we all struggle, even at things we’ve been doing for over twenty years.
This #knittingfail was just pure stupidity on my part. I’d never worked with mohair and I was pretty damn sure I wasn’t going to be able to wear it next to my skin EVEN BEFORE I BOUGHT IT. And yet, I wanted to try. But did I knit a swatch? Or test the yarn in any other way before knitting? Nope. I loved knitting the pattern, loved the colour, etc, but couldn’t wear it for longer than thirty seconds when I tried it on. There is a slim chance I pull it out of storage, finish the arms and neckline, and give it away. Slim.
Here’s a close up so you can see the pretty speckles among the greys:
I loved the idea of this summer weight sweater and the freaking gorgeous yarn but didn’t enjoy knitting fingering weight yarn on 6mm needles. I put the bottom ribbing on hold, intending to knit the arms and give it a light block to see if I wanted it longer before binding off. But then I absolutely LOATHED knitting the sleeves on clunky, heavy needles. HATED IT!
Pretty close up of the yarn:
I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to knit with this insanely luxurious yarn, but I knew I wanted some sort of cables. I ripped this hat down to the ribbing twice (changing needle size) because I didn’t like the fit, but every time I tried it on I still hated the feel of it on my head – looser ribbing, tighter cabling. It got shoved to the back of the drawer!
This took up an insanely stupid amount of my time, specifically ripping back and trying to knit the legs out of the fuzzy yarn in a small circumference. I actually went so far as to teach myself magic loop (read: a new knitting technique) that I’d been far too lazy to bother with before. I just couldn’t see the stitches properly. So then I decided to knit the limbs in another yarn … instantly hating the combo. Honestly, if I’d had access to a fire, I would have burned this project.
So there you go. No one is perfect, including me. We make dumb choices even when we know better, we’re impatient, have short attention spans, etc.
Now! I’m making my darling husband (who is putting up rafters on the cabin addition today) waffles for brunch, then cracking a new book. I’ve read two books in the last two days – pure luxury!
Thank you, thank you for showing your knitting projects, I laughed and laughed and said Omg I have about 10 of those UFOs
The first one… mohair tee…. try wearing a silk tee underneath it. It’s very nice. It should be worn!
I haven’t failed yet since I’m on my first project. The project has been going on for 3 years (a queen size bed blanket). I am a true “expert” at the basic knit pattern by now but I hitch to try something a bit more complicated so I kick myself regularly to finish the d*mn blanket. I have 6 squares left and then the assembly…..
Blankets take forever to knit!
I do so admire you.
Hey don’t feel bad, I’ve been knitting for almost 60 years and I still have projects that drive me nuts. The latest is a pair of fingerless mitts that drive me crazy every time I have to make them.
😊😊😊
I can’t knit or crochet to save my life. My mom finally said it was just something I can’t do.
Kathi, you CAN learn to knit! You just need a patient teacher or a different book/video. have a knitter sit next to you as you learn the steps of making a stitch. Try the book “Learn to knit visually”. Last year a 55 year old left-hander who had never knit asked me to teach her. It took some time and creativity but she learned to knit and now continue to learn more stitches and patterns on her own. You can do it!
When teaching a left-handed friend to knit, we sat in front of a mirror and she followed me by watching & doing what she saw in the mirror. Worked like a charm!😀
You have great taste in yarn!
That’s just the nice way of calling me a yarn snob, Pamela. 😂
Lol we definitely all fail at projects. We just never post about them. It’s why I am loving my friends tumblr blog about his Annette Feldman big book of afghans project lol. He is just maybe too honest about it and I love it. I love seeing the real way it happens and I have stopped many projects and either frogged them or they are sitting just collecting.
Holy cow that cashmere looks soft! Do you think you’ll rip down the projects (at least the ones you liked the yarn for) and choose another pattern? That multicolor sweater you hated the arms for would make such a beautiful shawl! if you don’t feel like all that work, you could do giveaways for each project as is. (other than that cashmere, holy heck, that’ll make SOMETHING beautiful!). Sometimes getting old stuff OUT really frees the mind to move forward. That’s what I do with extra art supplies that just never worked for me. Totally freeing and you get to give the guilt away with the products!!! WIN-WIN.
I’ll definitely repurpose the red label (it’s my fav yarn) and I just might bring myself to finish the project next spring. The cashmere I just have to find the right pattern for!
Ooh, now you have to promise to SHOW YOUR WORK. That cashmere is the most beautiful yarn I think I’ve ever seen. I’m now hooked on “the good stuff”, hehehe. I just ordered some 50:50 baby alpaca & silk and also two skeins of British racing green 80:20 merino & silk yarn. All your fault, Meghan, lol. Thank you for hooking me on fingering weight beautiful yarn. After winning the skein of Mudpunch from you, I’m now an addict. Mwahahahaha!
I post most of my knitting on Instagram. 😊 Your yarn sounds gorgeous!