Beginner Knitter- Errors in most projects

I have been knitting for about 9 months. It really helps calm me and give relief for stressful days. Every project that I work on I make an error! I rip it out and start over on average about 3-5 times. Is this normal at my stage of knitting. Or should I find a new hobby?

I learned to knit during the Kennedy administration (I was a wee girl, of course :shifty:) and I still make mistakes. I usually find them soon enough to correct, but not always.

You’re knitting for the right reasons–stick with it and never demand perfection.

Goodness! Don’t be so hard on yourself!

If you demand perfection in all areas of life, you’re going to make yourself miserable.

If you’re happy with your finished project (warts and all) then don’t worry about it. Plus, knitting is often just as much about the process as it is about the finished object. Enjoy the process, learn from your mistakes, and treasure the outcome. It’s all good! (And pssssttt. . . . nobody’s going to arrest you because you don’t have a perfectly knitted sweater or hat or whatever.)

“Perfection” you are right. Maybe I have been reviewing too many advanced knitting blogs that show knitters working on their projects and the end resort is a perfect garment.

Thank you for not allowing me to quit, because I got a hugh amount of yarn that I need to start on christmas gifts with. I will keep my projects simple for now. Dish Clothes and several general scarves.

Yes it’s normal to make mistakes and it can be very frustrating to take out your project and start over several times. Most errors can be fixed some way or another and you might be seeing something that no one else will. Put down your work and stand back about 5 or 6 feet - chances are you won’t be able to see the mistake even though you know it’s there. While working on a project we tend to get so focused on the individual stitches that a mistake will look more obvious than it actually is when you look at the whole piece.

If it’s a dropped stitch or you knit a stitch instead of purled it, or added one by mistake, you can fix that. Take a look at the videos on the Tips page under Fixing Mistakes. That’ll help you learn how to fix them, which is also part of learning to knit.

Maybe I have been reviewing too many advanced knitting blogs that show knitters working on their projects and the end resort is a perfect garment.

Wanna bet?

Add to that… the pictures you see of finished items are usually washed or blocked and that can improve them a lot. It helps even out the stitches because even experienced knitters don’t have perfectly even stitches all the time.

I’ve been knitting for 10 years, and am an eternal beginner because I only do 1 project a year (or every other), usually in winter, so I know what you’re saying about enjoying the process, but also lots of mistakes being involved.

This year I learned about a wonderful thing- the lifeline! If you tend to make a lot of mistakes and do a lot of frogging (ripping out), it saves tons of time and frustration, because you only need to undo a small amount.

I prefer to use a thin, slippery thread so it doesn’t pull at the existing knitting, which I’ve had problems with when using wool yarn, especially thick.

Below is a video link for you about lifelines; there are many others online, but this is one of the simplest and clearest demos. Hope it’s helpful!

Thank you for sharing the video and information about the lifeline. I will be using this idea going forward. This is great tip!

Thank you again!
:woot:

Mistakes are a part of knitting. The trick is to catch them sooner rather than later and you can do that by looking over the last few knit rows as you go along. Take a look at the videos for fixing mistakes which have some great tips in them. And welcome to the club. It sounds like your becoming a real knitter!

I think it’s normal. I don’t think I’ve done one project where I haven’t ripped out something. We knitters and crocheters are our worst critics. There are no knitting police so relax. I debate whether I really want to rip or not. Sometimes I leave the mistake in. It’s something only I notice. And I think it gives my work character.

I think the most important thing of all is [B]don’t give up![/B] :wink:

Knitting is a journey, it spans our lifetime…and we never really “get there”!

Enjoy your knitting! Forgive yourself for errors. Fix what you can, learn from mistakes, and move on!

I think my own knitting would have progressed much faster if I’d had access to wonderful sites like Knitting Help with it’s videos and forum.

YouTube is also a great resource that didn’t exist for us old timers!

Rock on, Knittin’ Sister! You’re in the right place at the right time!

I make so many mistakes. In my first cable scarf I somehow got misaligned and didn’t notice so I had to frog. Later I made another error but because I didn’t use a lifeline and was inexperienced I could not be sure what row in the pattern that I was at when I corrected the error. This resulted in an expra cable where one shouldn’t have been. It is very camouflaged and so far only I can find it. I asked others to find the error and they can’t. Later on after binding off I found 2 purls where I should have had knit stitches instead but they too are very difficult to see.

Recently I knitted the Lillian Tank, http://deliciousstitches.blogspot.ca/2007/05/lillian-tank-top.html . The pattern is easy but I lost focus many times. The lace part is 2 different 14 stitch repeats so I placed a marker between each repeat. Even using a lifeline I found it difficult to frog and insert my needles properly knitting in the round. The lifeline seems awkward for me with circular needles. I was in a terrible mess. I was half way through but was going to rip the entire thing apart as I had made mistakes that I couldn’t perfectly correct in other rows. Then I realized that even though I could not get that one row right the markers at least were between the repeats and the pattern curves were still unaffected and in alignment as a result. I fixed the problem best I could and later adjusted holes in the lace that looked too big or too small by attaching them to another stitch using a tapestry needle and pieces of yarn. The result was great. I finished the tank and all looks well.

I’ve been knitting for about the same length of time you have. I still mess up and generally have to start again at least a time or two, especially when I’m trying something brand new… and after only nine months there’s A LOT that’s still brand new. I figure learning a new skill just takes time… and getting really good at it will take longer than I’ve been doing it. DH told me about sitting with his grandmother when he was a boy, watching her knit. She’d been taught how as a very young girl. He recalled her commenting on an error in her work as just part of knitting. Even after more than 50 years her knitting was not perfect. Sometimes she’d tear it out to redo and other times it just became part of the uniqueness of the handmade item.

The reasons why I knit, at least for me at this stage, are far more important than perfection in the finished objects (of which there are precious few). I LIKE learning and there’s also the relaxation aspect. There is something amazing about the feel of yarn and watching each stitch as it’s formed … and then seeing the sequence of stitches become something more right there in my hands!

Enjoy the journey. My latest ‘new’ is working with Magic Loop. Very cool but it took me a few tries and restarts to get the feel of it, even after watching several different tutorials and reading about the technique in different places. I’ll probably never be as fast as some of the skilled demonstrations in the tutorials… but then again, I’ll bet they’ve been knitting for far longer than me.

He recalled her commenting on an error in her work as just part of knitting. Even after more than 50 years her knitting was not perfect. Sometimes she’d tear it out to redo and other times it just became part of the uniqueness of the handmade item.

This is so true. I’ve been knitting over 45 and I still make mistakes. Many of them I can fix or ignore, but just this afternoon I found one. I inadvertently did a YO in the middle of the back of a sweater and didn’t see the holes for about 5 rows. I dropped stitches down to see about fixing it, but because of the loose gauge I was using it just wasn’t going to look right. I probably could have twisted the YO closed so there wasn’t a hole, but I think it still would be very noticeable. So I ripped back 5 rows. You just shrug, say ‘oh well’, and go on…

I’ve been knitting almost 7 yrs and I too make mistakes. If I find them on the next row I often fix them, but if they are not that obvious except to me I let them go.