The most annoying mistakes you make when knitting.

ronib

My biggest error is not checking the tension so often end up with a huge garment !

Yeah, my Mum used to not check the tension and we ended up in some funny looking jumpers😂
Talking of knitting I always wonder what that woman on Gogglebox is making ( sits next to her DH on sofa) the whole place is full of knitted stuff.

I started knitting the 2nd frog’s back leg the other night - did 4” of the required 6” of st st - before realising that I was using 4mm needles, instead of the 5mm I’d used for the other.😩

Still haven’t unravelled and started again.

Not my mistake but my Mums, she was knitting pair of double knit slipper type things, the pattern read "knit twelve rows in st st", Mum read it as "knit twelve inches in st st", she handed me this large piece of odd shaped knitting and said something like "I don't know where I've gone wrong with this", after reading the pattern we all had a good laugh, it took quite a while for her to live that one down.

I was teaching my little daughter how to knit when my son asked me to teach him. My husband not to be left out joined in. The first thing he knitted was complete layette for his sisters baby (the days before baby grows). After that he knitted all his own sweaters and socks.

Oh yes!! I was once knitting a shawl in the most beautiful gradient yarn, and that happened when I'd hit about 450 stitches. The whole section of lace was out, and not only could I not spot where it had happened, but there was no chance of dropping back a stitch and fixing it. It never got finished, and I'd put sooo much work into the thing.

Being one stitch short on a lace pattern in a shawl, where it matters that things aren't lining up....and not being able to find out where it has gone missing!!

I first learnt how to knit on 4 needles way back over 83 years ago in the shelter during WW2. Knitting socks, balaclavas and mittens for the troops. I was 9 years old then.

If a stitch was dropped it was picked up with a fine crochet hook and once put back on the needle it was not visible.

I used to love doing Entrelac knitting but as I got older my fingers seized up and I started dropping the needles and pulling the stitches off which made it very painful and awkward trying to get them back on the needles again.

My fingers are not nimble now like they used to be and I miss being kept busy and can only be thankful that I can still use my middle finger of my right hand to type messages on my computer.
My d-i-l now has the first set off knitting needles that I learnt to knit with all those years ago.

Not being satisfied with the piece and starting again…and again…and again

So many over the years...
the casual jumper for my GS which didn't have any rib in the pattern and therefore ended up with the back sewn in upside-down

mis-reading a pattern and ending up with a cardigan half round and half v neck. I did realise in time to put that one right!

and more dropped stitches than I care to remember

but the biggest one I think was buying some trendy dark needles and using them to knit navy blue yarn in the winter. Almost impossible to see the stitches!

This thread has made me feel so much better. I thought I was the only one who made mistakes knitting,

I've been knitting for 60 years but never checked tension or pinned out the completed garment either and things have always turned out ok. Does pinning out really make a difference?

I have made a lot of mistakes like puff sleeves on top of a red cardi , buying 3 balls of lovely purple mohair too crochet a poncho from a charity shop for £3 then discovering I had run out of yarn to finish it by a long way so had to spend about £18 on more yarn to finish it so not so much a bargain .

I haven't mastered how to pick up dropped stitches so unravel and regret it

Ah yes, and I now know never to knit anything remotely complicated if watching a foreign language film when the subtitles are very much necessary. One cannot concentrate properly on both - it addles the brain.

Betty18

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.

I read somewhere that it's only God that is allowed to create perfection so it's OK to have some mistakes in something you've made! I'm not religious but I quite like this idea.

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!

If you can knit and purl you can do cables and fancy stuff. Basically there are only two stitches, K and P. Youtube has loads of useful videos showing you what to do.

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.

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!

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.

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 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

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

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.

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.😆