Thursday, February 18, 2010

Lesson Learned

Here's where I am with the sweater:



But I'm OK about it!

As I was knitting the sweater and reading the pattern, there were a couple of things that didn't make sense to me. I checked, double-checked and hundredth-checked my math. Wrote out rows, charts. But something wasn't clicking.

Yesterday I sat with somebody and we went over the pattern. I learned that no matter how well-written patterns are--and this is an exceptionally well-written pattern--a pattern should be looked upon as a suggestion. It's the knitter who does the final tweaking and decisions.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the pattern (or my math!) -- it's just that I'm more comfortable making a couple of minor changes. And guess what? I'm the knitter--I can do that!

So I frogged it. It was only twelve rows. No big deal. When I cast back on, I'll be casting on as a more confident knitter.

7 comments:

minipurl said...

That's the spirit! The great thing about knitting is the fact that you can undo (and fix!) your mistakes.
Your yarn is gorgeous :)

margaret in manhattan said...

oh wow- I was sitting at home yesterday all day - wish I could have helped you (you didn't call you didn't write ;-()- but I'm sure that you're going to do just fine - the offer still stands, or sits, as the case may be -

Susan said...

Good for you! It takes courage to do that.

sherriknits said...

It is so freeing to discover what you did! I used to be so rigid and nervous about following a pattern and never reized you could change anything. I'm.not sure where that changed but I'm glad it did! It'll be fun to follow your progress!

Anonymous said...

Think of it as a practice run. I do that all the time. Once I can see the knitting in my hands, I get a better idea of the way I want to proceed. It is fun to change little things to make a pattern more your own.

Jackie's Stitches said...

I'm looking forward to seeing the changes you make to the pattern!

What is it that you didn't like about it? I'm not to the place yet where I have the confidence to do that. Congratulations on having it yourself!

Susan Knight said...

So far I know I will frog at least 3 times before I actually, officially begin knitting the whatever.