We all make mistakes, right? Well, maybe not Vince! 🙂
This morning as I was in bed, waiting to get up, I was thinking. First . . this all started because last night I desperately wanted to finish Chart 5 in my There and Back Shawl.
There and Back
I’m going to do another post soon, once it’s finished, about how much I have loved this project!
For the most part, it’s very easy to do. The pattern is pretty intuitive in that it’s easy to notice if you’re doing the wrong thing because the “flow” is interrupted. Most of the sections will have 7 or 8 or 10 repeats of a sequence of 18 to 23 stitches. Many of them, I do the once or twice and it sticks in my head and I can finish the row without looking at the pattern. There are a few rows that just don’t “click” in my head and I have to follow the pattern stitch by stitch. Those are the rows when Vince wants to talk to me! I hate to say “Don’t talk right now, I’m counting!” because if I say it once, his reality is “I can never talk to you because you’re always counting!”
Last night he went to bed before I did. I knew that the last couple of rows of Chart 5 were going to be rows that required a bit more attention and being able to do those with Vince in bed, the dogs asleep and the TV off . . yes! Right off the bat, a stitch slipped off the needles and unraveled itself about 3 rows down before I caught it. I thought I had fixed it but a little voice kept telling me . . no . . it isn’t right. I chose not to look too closely. By now, I had 284 stitches on my needles. I did Rows 71, 72, 73 and 74 . . that’s over 1,000 stitches! Once I finished Chart 5, I spread it out a little to look at it, and it was obvious that my “fix” wasn’t right so I had to rip back to row 67. That is close to 3,000 stitches . . one stitch at a time, because my last lifeline was on Row 60. Adding to the time it took . . beads that had to be removed and put back in their little baggie.
I got all the stitches ripped back, got back to Row 71 and went to bed.
The worst part . . I couldn’t even blame anyone else . . not the dogs, not the TV, not the internet. I was sitting there, in my perfect little space, nothing but quiet, no distractions, and I screwed up.
So, what I was thinking about this morning . . some people would have stopped and ripped back right then and made absolutely sure everything was right. Not me . . I hope for the best and almost always create more work for myself. Even when quilting, I’d sometimes make a little mistake piecing or points didn’t line up and I’d think . . it’s not a big deal. I’d get the top loaded on the longarm and then decide I couldn’t live with it and have to go back and it’s so much more time consuming to fix it at that point.
How do you do it? Hope for the best or stop right then and make 100% sure it’s right before proceeding? Is there any hope for those of us who hope for the best . . that some day we’ll learn to stop right then and fix it?
Pam Dudgeon says
For the most part, I’ve been one who leaves the small goofs in. Other times I just don’t catch them until years later. but as years have passed I’ve learned that although they were goofs, with time and practice I now know how not to make those same goofs. so that’s the kind of progress I can live with and still appreciate what I did that was right.
Sandy says
Piecing some quilt blocks together this afternoon went pretty smoothly except for one set. The pieces didn’t match up as nicely as I like. It was off more than I could tolerate so I unstitched and then redid the seam. But most of the time I don’t worry too much when things aren’t absolutely perfect. If I did, I’d never get anything finished!
Dorothy Matheson says
I am one who fixes right away if I catch it. I do leave small things like corners that don’t quite meet or points that are not quite right in my quilting. Small ones and I do fix bigger ones right away.
I do not knit hardly at all so do not have long runs of it to deal with.
I do crochet and it is easy to rip back and easy for me to see a mistake.
Dorothy
Sandie says
The Facebook post from yesterday should answer that question for you. 3/4’s of the way done with my Aran sweater front, and I picked up my knitting when I knew I shouldn’t have. (Too emotional and stressed, should have never touched it!) of course, I purled when I should have knit, and didn’t catch it until three rows later. Knew it would look (to me) like a neon sign blinking where the mistake was, I tried to deliberately drop the stitch 4 rows and repair the mistake. I know have 3 rewound cakes of yarn instead of the sweater front to go with the finished sleeves and back. ??
Pat says
I try to go with the saying only the good lord is perfect but if I know I made a mistake I might as well go ahead and fix or it will drive me nuts. Which is not a long trip.
Frieda Z says
This is looking wonderful. I usually have to fix my knitting. It always seems to be glaring at me. LOL
Donna inKS says
I’m reminded of an incident from years back. I showed my mother and sisters a flimsy early in my quilting life. I turned my attention elsewhere, but I heard Mom say, “I wonder if Donna can live with that”. I got that ‘fixed’ before the hour it took them to drive home had passed! Since then I pretty much ‘fix’ immediately! When I did knit even more years back (that was b.c.) I was pretty good at catching mistakes quickly before I had to take out too much work.
Ruth says
I thought that if you missed a knitting stitch, it would eventually begin to unravel from there. So of course I would go back and re-knit from fixing my mistake. That’s my whole experience with knitting. I can’t even purl.
Judy Laquidara says
That’s true but there are more mistakes than missing a stitch. When following a pattern, making a wrong stitch won’t unravel but it will throw the design off.
Dot says
I’m one who has to fix things as soon as I notice them. My Danish Grandma was the same way. If somebody told her, “No one will ever know about that mistake,” she’d say “I’ll know, and it will bother me.” I do try to scan over my work every few rows, so the mistakes don’t get buried too deep.