Making mistakes
As a general rule I am not afraid of making mistakes. Whether it is a cooking mistake, a sewing mistake or a knitting mistake, I take it with aplomb and the attitude that it wasn't a mistake, it was a learning experience. (Except for cooking, I don't view those mistakes as teachable moments but rather excuses for why someone else should cook for me.)
Take for example my latest scarf project. I joined the "As You Wish" mystery knit along because it was from a designer I like and paired with yarns from a dyer I adore. I cast on Tuesday night and over the course of the next few days made a fair amount of progress. I also made a fair number of mistakes.
The first mistake was not watching the video for the first special stitch. I got cocky and figured I was doing it correctly from the written instructions. Feel free to laugh.
I persisted, however, figuring that no one really looks too closely at the stitches.
Finally, a couple of inches later and an entire color change, I gave in and watched the video. Oops!
Did I rip out my work and redo it? Nope. I soldiered on using the galloping horse theory of crafting.
Then I started the next section and immediately messed up the stitch count.
Did I stop and rip it out then? Nope! I just fiddled with increases and decreases figuring I’d get the correct number eventually.
This morning I spent a delightful couple of hours on this new section. I did watch the video for the newest stitch (wasn't going to make that mistake again) and kept going. Lost in the book I was listening to, trying not to cry, I knit and knit, changing colors and slipping stitches like a pro.
And then I actually looked at the front of the piece.
D'oh!
Did I rip then? Sort of. I started pulling back a few rows, determined to not start over. But the yarn was sticking to itself and eventually I came to the realization that if I was ripping back this much, I might as well start over.
And this is why my new scarf looks like this (not a spoiler).
Time for lunch.
I'll start over later.
