The most annoying mistakes you make when knitting.

Not quite buying enough wool, with half a sleeve to go, then not being able to get the same dye batch. It showed! Only made that mistake once! I did wear the jumper - in the garden!!

That's hilarious 😂

The worst mistake I made in knitting was even imagining I could knit.

CHARDY Thank you for the Roman’s story. Arthritis meant I could not knit for so many years but, last year, my wonderful rheumatologist prescribed a new med. And I am knitting again.
Not tried any fancy patterns which I used to find so satisfying.
So far only simple squares for a local children’s charity. A volunteer stitches donated squares into blankets. Even so, I have found the odd “twisted” stitch late on but now I can say “That’s how the Romans did it!"

Aarrggh. I did it again- left it on a chair unsupervised and the 2 cats grabbed the ball and unravelled it all round the house.

I quite often drop a stitch but dont notice for a few rows. My saviour is a small crochet needle, so much easier to make up the stitches instead of unravelling or using the knitting needle.
I once attempted a really complicated aran pattern and couldnt understand some of the instructions. I emailed the manufacturer and they had to send me another pattern that had the corrections on.

AskAlice

I just think you're all amazing to be able to knit things like cables and fancy stitches. I wish I could - purl and plain are my limit!

Cable is essentially plain and purl. Give it a try. Much more interesting than stocking stitch!

I’ve done this in the current jumper twice. I think everyone does. I’ve left them. It’s not too obvious to the untrained eye and also it makes the piece ‘mine’. Handmade and I perfect. Wonderful.

Love it 💜

I used to knit fairly effortlessly, now my hands are a lot weaker and they ache, which puts me off all the counting you have to do when following a pattern! So I make mistakes, and I often can’t see what I’ve done wrong. My mum would go back rows and rows if she dropped stitches, but I don’t have the patience, I’m afraid. When I count my stitches, I never have the number remaining that the pattern says I should have.

Yes Witzend,
I have done both as well! So annoying!
Other annoying knitting mistakes: noticing a mistake in a pattern a few rows after and having to unpick a ladder to correct it.
Forgetting to start increases on sleeves, then having to unpick several rows only to knit them again including the increases, even more annoying as I usually knit both sleeves at the same time.
Same thing with necklines, I have carried on knitting past the point of dividing for the neck, then had to unpick, so annoying,
Still enjoy knitting though,

LRavenscroft try starting each row with a slip stitch, you get a much neater edge.
I like to knit and read but with my latest cardigan I found I was cabling in the wrong directions and twisting stitches from the front instead of the back and vice versa. So I’m now listening to an audiobook through wireless headphones, it’s worked a treat.

Forgetting to change needle size after the rib!

I am only doing a smallish chunky blanket for youngest GC (my blankets ever since lock down have become much loved in our family!) and i picked it up other day after a couple of days break from it to find it had got a bit 'wider' on one side- obviously the result of knitting when late and nodding off! I had to unravel it all and start again.! Such a waste of time.Never mind, almost halfway through again now..One of my main problems is joining colours in as i cant just 'knit it in' as im never convinced it will hold fast- so i tie a good knot which is harder to disguise in a chunky knit...🙄

Troglodite- what is the new med if you dont mind me asking?

Making a mistake, ignoring it, hoping it won’t show then after lots more knitting realise it sticks out like a sore thumb and having to pull it all out.

Witzend- i think thats why my blankets have been so popular in our family! 😅 I sometimes add a panel of a bit of moss stitch or a purl to add a bit of 'pattern', but mostly theyre knit only in different colours and i can get through some box sets at same time.😆

When I was knitting a complicated 2ply shawl and in the middle of a long row my new West Highland Terrier terrier decided she would jump up on my lap for a cuddle. I said a few naughty words that day. She now waits till I say it's okay before she jumps up.

I don't knit because I can't bear making mistakes

I only knit for my grand children now, there is usually a small mistake on each garment, but only I know. I hate the sewing up which I am hopeless at. I have knitted a very tricky shawl twice, when I finished it the second time, I ripped the pattern up so that I would never be tempted to knit it again.

I remember I'd 'progressed' to knitting lace ... but if I made a mistake, there was no way I could understand how to correct it or unravel it, sooooo I always made sure I completed a full row, and made sure the knitting was WELL AWAY from the pointed end of the needles. My face must have been a picture, when I hastily shoved the knitting down to the end of the needle, only to find the knob fell off!!! Moral to the story .. check the knobs on the end of the knitting needles!!!
Wondering if a 'Life Line' might help some knitters? I only learnt of these a few years ago .... different ways of doing them .... Take a strong but thin thread, and knit it with the main yarn on a row which would be easy to pick up ... then if you make a mistake, you can hopefully pick up the row where the thread runs. Put one in whenever you feel it needs one. Was wondering if it might help the lady knitting with eyelash yarn, though that yarn is a nightmare to pick up or count rows on. (For me it is, anyway)
I've loved reading this thread xx

Any mistake I make and off my knitting goes to get rectified by my bestie. I’m useless and she’s a dab hand at sorting out my disasters

I've done both those annoying things Witzend but one of my favourite mistakes is buying daft wool in the first place - you know - that nice but difficult to knit with speciality yarn.

I bought 8 balls of very fine beige (what else?) mohair type yarn which is a right pig to work with, all at the bargain price of 25p a ball. Obviously it was waiting there for an idiot like me to come along!

Then the eyelash type yarn which has been mentioned and one with tiny pieces of contrast squares which knits up very small. Both these could look very nice indeed as a trim on the hemlines of a cardigan sleeve or v-neck. I just need to find the right pattern to use them with.

My biggest problem with knitting...is knitting. I've done so for 30 plus years, and in thattimethe only item I actually finished was a blanket!

CurlyMops your experience has reminded me of a disaster which happened a few months ago. I was using a pair of my grandma's old knitting needles which I'd somehow inherited on a complicated piece in the centre of a jumper when one of the needles snapped in two. The whole panel was cast adrift.
The entire pattern was complicated enough with this centre panel being more difficult. I seem to be strangely attracted to complicated patterns, I wonder why?

I was ready to jack it in, but with heavy heart as hitherto I'd made reasonable progress. The whole pattern was enough to test one's sanity and this was the last straw. I stamped around the living room, swearing as I went. I might even have kicked a chair. Eventually I calmed down and retrieved the situation. I always give granny's old needles a 'snap test' now.