Remember, this lovely alpaca can be yours by sharing your biggest knitting goof up! Okay, I know my Anouk story is a tough one to beat. There aren’t many of us who have, well, um… completely misread the instructions and only knit half a dress. But, we’ve all had troubles with guage, chosen the wrong yarn, miscounted, or just misread the instructions. Leave your story in the comments line and you could be doing some lace knitting before the end of the month!
I’m hoping that the slow amount of entries so far is not a sign that I am, by far, the worst knitter in the blogosphere and all my readers are state-fair-winning knitters who pre-read their pattern five times with a highlighter. (Are you?)
I was reading Curlypurly last week when we Little Man and I found Curious George going for a ride. Of course, we had to try it ourselves…
I have to say this is pure genious! To be able to entertain your three-year-old and wind yarn is a truly great thing. I got four skeins wound and would have done more, except Knittybaby woke up. Little Man thought it was wonderful and since we seem to have an unending supply of small stuffed animals, I can pull this game out anytime.
Knittymama 
What a great entertainment idea!!
Ack, I was going to mention your contest on my blog, but I am just in a tizzy this week. Craziness. 😦
So cool! My son thinks winding yarn is a kick so I can often put him to work winding for me. I’ll make sure to mention your contest on my blog today.
OK, I have a GREAT knitting mistake. (I came over from Kate’s blog.) This one, I think is such a doozy, I had to share.
The first time I tried to make a sweater I was a relatively newbie knitter. I bought some expensive (for me) thick and thin bulky weight variegated wool. Very pretty. I did a gauge swatch, but not surprisingly, my gauge was way off and I realized after I finished the back and half of the front that I would not have enough yarn.
For some reason, I did not realize that I could frog the piece I had already completed and bound off so I threw it away when cleaning out my closet. Ahem.
My biggest knitting goof involved starting a black sweater when a teen and finishing the back and half the front. Some months later, I stayed up until 3 am finishign the front. Later that morning, I realized that the front top part was knit at a much tighter gauge and had to be frogged. There the thing sat in my mother’s basement for about 20 years. Last year, I frogged the whole thing and cast on for a vest for myself. It came out too heavy and way too bulky under the arms. Frogged that puppy, too. Then I decided that I would make a sweater from the yarn – had enough, I was certain. So I knit the back and half the front (notice a pattern here). That’s when I realized that I had done the calculations for the sweater (sizing up from a toddler one I made the Neatnik) using my Stockinette stitch gauge not the stitch pattern gauge. I couldn’t face frogging that same yarn yet again and so I finished the sweater (adding wine red bold stripe on each upper arm and across the chest) and gave it to a friend’s son for Christmas last year.
I have yet to kniot myself a black sweater, though the yarn is currently on order….
My biggest goof: My best friend has one of those small dogs that gets cold and needs sweaters. I offered to knit one up. I did a killer job on one of those type that is in two pieces. My seaming usually sucks and I wanted to impress her, so I did up the seaming with precision. Really hid that seam and tucked in the ends so good that noway, nohow was it going to come apart. Then I realized that I had forgotten to leave the two holes in front for the legs. It looked like a beautiful turtleneck for a really weird legless dog. Okay, so the back end was still open, but still. I couldn’t undo it – I ended up ripping it all out, then I figured I could have just stitched around where the legholes should have been and cut them open. Then I realized that I had totally trashed yarn that was meant for sock #2 of a set that I hadn’t finished. 3 goofs in one!
Anouk is actually pretty tame because you did a great job improvising and making an apron/dress cover. If what you complete is usable then it’s successful. I have come to the conclusion that I am cursed. Over the past year I’ve made 5 sweaters in addition to my usual hats, scarves, purses, socks, etc. Of those 5 only 1 was wearable. I’m putting some never before seen pictures out on my blog. Not only are these terribly ugly, but they aren’t even usable. Cheers!