Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

Can you please share with me your most awful knitting blunders? I recently picked up a shawl that I was 3/4 through knitting. It uses a chart, and I must have been watching TV too closely because I read the chart backward, and now I have to tear out. Lace.

Please share your worst (or the worst of a friend, even!) so I don't feel like such a buffoon.

Sincerely,

Jane, Perhaps the Worst Chart Reader Ever to Roam the Earth

 

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Comments

[Deb K]

I was mostly through a cardigan when I tried it on, to find it was significantly larger than reasonable on me. I ripped it back, restarted the shoulders, then put it in a 4 year time out to think about what it's done.

[Kate]

On Sunday I was knitting a shawl and knit three stitches at the beginning of a row instead of 4. 290 stitches later, I realized my mistake, and picked out 287 stiches so I could knit the fourth stitch. In lace.
I think it's a tie.

[Cheryl]

I read a chart backwards for one of my first lace projects but decided no one but me would notice that the decreases were leaning in the wrong direction. Otherwise it would have gone in the trash - I'll tink a few stitches of lace in KidSilkHaze but not an entire lace scarf (no matter how small).

Just last week I decided I could shift the pattern so the motifs were offset instead of stacked rather than frog 8 rows of 450 stitches each - I'd started on row 9 for the second repeat of the chart.

And even without a chart I've decided that knitting and drinking wine while visiting with family don't mix! I had to frog and tink about 25% of a shawl TWICE when I realized my ability to count had gone missing.

You are not alone.

[MarthaO]

Not really a blunder but an embarrassing situation. I made a roughly 36" square baby blanket following an Elizabeth Zimmerman design that turns the square via short rows. It was an ingenious design and I loved knitting it but it involved kitchnering the provisionally cast-on stitches to the ending live stitches, and there were what felt like a gazillion stitches. First I joined it too tight, then too loose. I finally got it just right but somehow got a loop in the sewing thread and couldn't get it evened out, and there wasn't enough to cut and weave it. So I fudged it and wove the loop into the stitches. Looked fine to me. The embarrassing part: the parents used the blanket for the newborn's photo, and there was the loop waving in all its glory right above the baby's head. 😞

[Amy]

On my second sweater with bust darts, I put them on the back of the sweater. It was also a cardigan. 😔

[Rebecca]

Knit an entire sweater without checking gauge first.

No, it did not fit.

[Anne]

I made a fingerless mitts wit a pattern on the back of the hand and then followed the same directions and had a pair of left hand mitts. Didn’t even notice until the end😂

[Natalie]

My problem is that I have numerous WIP that I did not put the pattern with or even left a yarn label so that I know what I was knitting and where I was out. I have had to frog more than one WIP. I try not to do that anymore.

[Gia]

I was knitting a sock. I turned the heel perfectly. Forgot to knit the heel flap. Rookie mistake but I had probably knit 100 pair of socks at this point.

[Carrie]

I was making a pair of fair isle mittens, got most of the way through the first mitten, decided it was going to be too long, got frustrated and put it in time out. For TEN YEARS! Then one day last year I decided to try finishing it, and did so in less than an hour. After a ten-year hiatus! Started and completed the second mitt in about a week.

[Leah]

I'm working on a shawl with a lace pattern and have had to go back about three times before getting to a point where it was correct.

[Ruth Swarthout]

So am working on a simple so I thought small like size 2 vest for a little boy red fir valentine's day because he was born feb 14, 2022 but I have had to to frog it at least 4 times and now am combining 2cpatterns fingers crossed time is running out and I am watching my gr grand kids till next week. Plus I have ripped out a sweater completely liked the pattern but not the yarn. Still sitting in my basket

[Ashley Mattes]

When I first started knitting I didn't really "get" what swatching was all about. I was just too excited to start making stuff. So after a few knitted gifts went out the door and I found out that nothing fit the recipients, I got sad first, and then I learned all about making a swatch. Lol!