Attention residents of Minneapolis: The Fourth of July is over. Please put away your firecrackers and bottlerockets. I was very patient when you started up in early June, but you are starting to make me a wee bit batty, which makes it hard for me to concentrate when I am trying to explain things, like why ripping a five foot hole in Mommy’s only set of really NICE sheets is not okay, and no, I can’t just put a patch on it.
Okay, on to the business. Here’s the swatch(blocked! I’m such a good girl with this one) for Knittybaby’s heart blankie. I’m going for 6 inch squares, and it’s not quite there. Also, I can’t decide whether to do two or four ridges of garter at the top and bottom. My plan, since I hate to seam, is to just go from square to square without casting off. I should end up with just six strips to sew together. So what do you think? Two ridges? Four ridges? I’m leaning towards four.
Now, time for the contest! This is my thank you for all the lovely and supporting comments you have left here in regards to Knittybaby’s heart condition. If you’re new, go ahead and play too! Because this is also for me to have a little fun, and to celebrate the fact that despite Knittybaby’s upcoming surgery, he is growing, strong and happy, and in the end I have faith that this is all going to come out okay! I really liked Chris‘ comment, that it’s not grim, just real. I thought about how true that is. When I think about how my life has gone, so far I’ve been a pretty lucky girl and aside from the usual ups and downs, we’ve never encountered a challenge like this. Real? Definitely! But I’ve decided not to let it feel grim because I know my family will make it through all of this just fine, and a little tougher for it.
So what is your challenge? To share your absolute silliest, most head-smacking knitting mistake ever. I want you to try to top my Anouk story:
For those of you familiar with this pattern, it is supposed to be a pinafore. Obviously, mine didn’t end up that way. I knit this one in a panic on the way to Detroit for my niece’s baptism. I cast on and everything seemed to be fine until I got to the neckline. All of a sudden the instructions made no sense and didn’t match what I was doing. The front seemed too small, the straps too short, and nothing matched up. Since I was in the car, I had no resources and just improvised. I ended up with this Anouk apron. I decided there must be MAJOR pattern errors and gave it to my niece as is. (Babies like aprons right? Although my SIL may have been a little confused by it. In hindsight, it’s pretty funny looking.)
When we got home I was determind to figure out what was wrong. The pattern turned out to be fine. The problem? There were no schematics, and I had envisioned a one piece that wrapped around the back, so when I first started out I didn’t read too carefully. I completely skimmed over the cast on for “front” and “back” and just took it as “front and back” as in all one piece. You would think I would have figured this out when the instructions got screwy, but nope, I just kept on knitting. Once I got home and had time away from it, I sat and read the pattern again. As I read, it completely dawned on me. It’s in TWO pieces. Front and back. Of course. I have since smacked myself in the head a million times over this one because it is so incredibly obvious, but I’m also a lot better at reading my pattern instructions since then!
Your prize? Since there is so much lace knitting going on, and my current level of attention to knitting (maybe 5 minutes aat a time 🙂 just does not work with lace, I’m passing on the lace knitting to you! Two skeins of Misti Alpaca lace weight in a gorgeous plum color. Perfect for a first lace project! You have until next Friday, July 14th to tell me your biggest “I can’t believe I did that” knitting story. The one who can best top (or at least some close to) my Anouk mistake gets the yarn, simple as that! If it’s a tough call, I’ll call in some other judging help.
The winner will be announced by Monday, July 17th. Be sure to leave your story in the comments line or any later posts, I’ll get to them all. I look forward to a few good laughs! Feel free to invite other knitters to come over to play!
Arthur says, “You know you want to fess up!”
Knittymama 
Four ridges, definitely. Hi, Arthur!
Um, back when I was a very new knitter and ready to make the transition from scarves to a garment, I picked the super easy tank top from 25 Sweaters for the Brand New Knitter (yeah, yeah, I know it’s cropped – I was pretty buff that summer). I went out and bought yarn and happily knit away. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that things weren’t quite right, but I persevered, carefully seaming the tank and even sewing the decorative buttons onto the straps.
What was it that wasn’t quite right? I had no concept of gauge or its importance. The straps on my tank top would land about 2″ to the outside edge of my shoulders (the tank was terribly wide), yet the length was such that the tank was breast baring!! Whoops. It was never worn….
I haven’t been knitting complicated things long enough to have many crazy stories. I think the wierdest thing I’ve done when I was knitting the Irish Hiking Scarf, was to put stitches on a cable needle but then forget to knit them off. I knit all the way to the next cable row before I noticed…
The first sweater I made for my son was a raglan. I didn’t read the pattern correctly on the decreases. Instead of doing a decrease on each side of the marker, I made one. The result was the longest sweater ever with a neck that wouldn’t fit over his head. The raglan parts were like 14 inches long. I still have it hanging up in my closet. I don’t know why exactly.
I haven’t knitted much .. scarves and dishcloths and a hooded baby towel that needs some pattern adjusting, but in the knitting of my first scarf I kept purling when I should have been knitting. The result is a scarf that had random “stripes” of garter stitch mixed in with the looooong line of fuzzy stockinette. And I just couldn’t get around to binding that thing off. It’s like 6′ long.
Alright here it goes. THe first sweater I made was the skully from Stitch N’ Bitch. Everything was going on great until it came to picking up stitches for the neck and sleeves. After perviously knitting several pairs of mittens I thought I knew how to correctly pick up stitches. I was dead wrong. I “picked up” stitches for these sections and went on knitting. After binding off and sewing up all my seams I tried on my first sweater. Well I I literally tried to try on my first sweater. My head and shoulders did not fit through any of the holes. I rip that thing apart, fair isle and all three times before asking for help. It looks pretty good know, but what a head ache.
Well, no that long ago I knit a lovely little blue-green sweater for a cousin’s first baby. In my normal fashion, I looked immediately for short cuts to make the thing go faster. Knitting the body in the round instead of back and forth was an obvious choice. That way, all I’m doing as knitting, and I save myself a couple of short seams at the end. I was faithfully following the directions for the shoulder shaping before I realized that I had never divided for the arm holes.
Ok, so I finished my first project back in October, it was a felted bucket-style purse and it turned out pretty good. Then I decided to knit my second project, a felted hat for DH. Seeing as how I was certain I knew more than the pattern designer (remember- I’d knit only one other item) and “customized” the crown of the hat. DH has a larger head than many hat patterns allow for. So then I ran it through the washing machine a couple times, and the darn thing had shrunk WAY short but was just a little too small in circumference. This was supposed to be a felted helmet-style hat with ear flaps, instead he ended up with a fez with ear flaps. There’s no way I’m letting him out of this house with that hat on his head. He thinks its cool, I still hide it.
I will share my Oh My Knitting Moment. It is amazing how many of our moments stem from our stubbornness! My aunts tried to teach me to knit about 5-6 times before college. Learning to knit didn’t “click” until college. My roommate soon had the whole wing of our dorm interested in yarn and needles, and under her care, I was determined to learn the art. Still, I wasn’t going to waste my time on a scarf, or squares, no I was going to begin with what she was knitting…a raglan sleeved sweater knit from the top down. I had watched her on the first one, and was certain that I could do this. I picked the yarn, and began at the neck…just as my roommate, Laurie, had done. I started fine, increasing every other row. Then I joined the neck so I could begin knitting in the round. Soon, I was ready to take off the sleeves, which I would come back to knit later. This was the time I began to worry. This sweater was looking larger than I had imagined. In fact, it went from being for my current boyfriend to being for my grandpa. I kept on knitting, and knitting, and knitting. Grandpa wasn’t there for me to have try on the sweater…he wintered in Mexico with Grandma, so he wasn’t going to be back until spring. It seemed as if my sweater was growing, but my amazement that I was knitting a sweater for my grandpa, well, I was thrilled! I finished it right before he came home, but when he went to try it on, it wouldn’t even fit over his head. In fact, my knitting gauge had gone from tight to what is now my normal, so the body of the sweater looked more like a horse blanket. It was enough to make me want to cry, but my grandpa gushed over how much he thought of it. I remember seeing it over the back of his chair when I went to visit, so even when it didn’t fit, he still appreciated the effort. I lost grandpa last year…I wonder where that old sweater is now?
My worst knitting goof was my first pair of socks that I was so proud of when I finished…such an accomplishment. But when I tried on my socks they were way too short for my small feet! I had forgotten to do toe decreases and had kirtchnered off my sock thinking I was finished. I still have those socks which I will always keep as a souvineer. My first pair of blunder socks!
Hmm.. does it count when you decide “Who needs Instructions Anyway?” – and just gun it? Now, thinking back.. over two years with this sweater as an Unfinished Object (UFO), it was a pretty harebrained idea!
I had only been knitting about six months at the time, and I still can’t figure out how this plan was ever supposed to work ;o)
There have been tooo many, but I guess the boneheadest(?) one was knitting one front of a baby sweater in a 5 sts ribbing instead of the 5 st Seed St. For 13″!! You would think I would have realized it by the first inch or so?
Best wishes for your situation.
Ok I don’t know if my counts cause it is a seaming one but here goes. I have made baby sweaters for every baby born in my family. My cousins wife was prego with second child and they knew it was another boy, so I had decided to do something special and make big brother and baby brother matching sweaters. I didn’t know how special they really were until they were opened at the shower. I made big brothers dark blue body with light blue sleeves, and baby brother light blue body with dark blue sleeves. At the shower they were opened with oohs and ahhs what every knitter lives for right? As they were being passed around the room full of women they just thought is was so adorable they were completely the opposite, and they just loved the thing I did on the one sleeve of the baby brothers sweater, it was just enough of the different design to set it off. I am thinking huh different sleeve what are they talking about. As I looked at it I realize after seeming the side seem on the sleeve I had sewed it into the sweater inside out. I offered to fix but the mother insisted it stay that way thinking it was cute. I now pretty much do knit in sleeves. lol
I was teaching a beg. knitting class, where we were working a baby pullover. The sweater was cast on for the bottom back, then knit in one piece, casting on extra stitches on each side for the arms, worked in two pieces for each shoulder and front flap (making a hole for the neck) and then joined again for the rest of the body. I had made the mistake of twisting my straight needle when I was joining so that I had one side of the neck turned around 360 degrees and then attached to finish the body. I didn’t realize this until I got 5 or 6 rows into the body. I took out those 5 or 6 rows and kept it that way to demonstrate to the class. But wait, it gets better. I was telling my students what I had done and admonishing them to make sure they watched out for it, because it was easy to do… and then I continued on with the sweater…. and I DID IT AGAIN! After having just told them to watch for it. I laughed so hard!!
ok so mine literally happened this week. Ok so i’m making Ruby, a tank thats reallly loooow in the front and you layer another tank top underneath. So I started to knit the xs for myself because thats what all my clothes are and I didn’t want it to be baggy at all. So on and knit and when I finally get to sew it up, took me all day as I wanted it to look really good! I look at my husband and said “OK lets try this puppy on!” Well I tried it on alright and looked like a freaking hooker! Apparently my boobs are NOT an xs in this pattern because the two sides that are supposed to go halfway over your boobs went completely AROUND my boobs. Talk about baring it all!!!
Needless to say I have to rip the whole thing and start again in a bigger size!
While knitting the Carry-It-Home linen bag, I cast on the right number of stitches, knit the requisite number of rows to get to the point where you fold over and bind off 25 stitches to the cast-on stitches to make a handle on each side. Next row you cast on 25 and then you have a handle. You knit a few more rows and then fold the knitting over and knit the live stitch together with the cast-on stitch to make a folded over double top with a nice edge before starting the mesh. Instead of thinking and following instructions, I did the same thing I did for the handles. Knit the live stitch together with the cast-on stitch and then bound them off. I can’t believe I am admitting this but I did it ALL THE WAY AROUND the 151 stitches. Got done, had one stitch. I totally couldn’t believe I had been so stupid and didn’t even catch how stupid it was at some point as I was doing it. But I did un-do it and ultimately finish the linen bag.
Marianne
I knit Samus from Knitty three times. The first time I followed the medium directions, using size 8 needles, and it was was too big. I swear it grew when I washed it to block. In denial, I sewed it together. WAAAYY too large everywhere. I ripped it out. Then I made the small with 8 needles. To the frog pond again. THEN I knitted it again in medium using a size 7 needles. Perfect. I onluy have the zipper left to do. Thank goodness the Cascade 220 held up. It’s all chronicled in my blog archives somewhere.
Okay, so I am red and shame-faced, but I did post pictures of some of my recent knitting catastrophes. Cricket, cricket, cricket… hello, will any knitters still talk to me or have I been shunned for the sheer horror of what I can do to perfectly good yarn? Cheers!
Sweaters. My first one was great. Fine, no problems! So I got cocky and thought that “I could knit sweaters.” I proceeded to pick out a gorgeous jacket sweater pattern with a collar for my Mom’s 60th. I didn’t like the yarn that it called for so I improvised with Lamb’s Pride Bulky in a wonderfully rich, dark purple. Since my guage was different than what was called for, I had to do “knitting math” (oh why didn’t I pay attention in 7th grade algebra?!) to translate the pattern. With the help of a lovely Depth of Field employee and two hours later, the first half of the sweater was translated, I was set to go.
But that was only the beginning: every piece of the sweater needed to be frogged at least three times due to guage or miscalculations or just winging it… AT LEAST THREE TIMES. That means that some of the pieces were torn apart MORE THAN THREE TIMES. If the yarn hadn’t cost so much, I may have scrapped it all together.
I finished, finally, months after her 60th and gave her a surprise birthday present in the fall when she’d be more likely to wear it anyway. She loved it, flipped out, couldn’t believe it, slipped it right on…and went to put her hands in the POCKETS THAT WEREN’T THERE. Why didn’t I remember that my mother loves pockets? I sighed, took the @#$! sweater back and added pockets. I couldn’t stand the sight of it for about a year!!!