When at First You Don't Succeed

 

Put it down.

No, I’m serious, put the stupid thing down and walk away for a little while. Watch TV, take a nap, work on another project, anything. Come back to it once you’re able to look at it with fresh eyes, or else you’ll probably find yourself repeating the same dumb mistakes over and over in a frustrating loop. I speak from experience.

Take my latest knitting project for example, the honeycomb-inspired tank top. It’s my first time making something so large without a pattern, and I’ve been carefully working up the back half of the shirt. I felt like I was making good progress, even as I reached the honeycomb section at the top. Things were going well! And then I stepped back and looked at the thing I made and I Did Not Like It.

Now, you’re entitled to your own opinion of that stitch pattern but it doesn’t look at all like I wanted it to. I thought it would from the swatch but no! The honeycombs are way too small and aren’t very well defined in this fuzzy yarn, and so it just sort of looks like a mess. I worked up a couple more rows to see if it would grow on me but no luck. Either I would have to live with something I didn’t much like the look of (a terrible prospect when you’ve poured hours of time into making a garment from scratch), or I’d have to rip back 30+ rows, figure out a better honeycomb stitch, and start over.

I put it down and walked away. I did some baking.

I came back and ripped the rows out.

I walked away again and worked on colorwork mittens.

I figured out a new stitch pattern with bigger, clearer honeycombs.

I walked away again and daydreamed about living room décor.

And finally, my frustration spent, I was ready to return to this project in full force. Redoing those 30 rows didn’t take as long as had imagined it would when I was ripping them out the first time. And I really do think that the new honeycomb stitch is an improvement.

That said, if I get 30 rows into this pattern and start to hate it, I won’t hesitate to rip it out too. (Okay, I’ll hesitate a little, but I'll do it). I’ll probably need some more time to vent my frustration. I might curse and complain. I might throw the darn thing across the room and leave it in a heap for a week. But that’s okay.

If at first you don’t succeed, you don’t have to try again immediately. But don’t give up either.

Until next time, stay crafty my friends.