After 22 years of experimenting, knitting a million miles of yarn, and frogging half a million miles, I’ve learned some lessons the hard way. (Is there any other way?) Here are my top six:
- Check your gauge. There’s a reason people repeat this over and over. It’s because we know we need to knit a swatch every time, but we hate taking the time to do it. Three different knitters using the same yarn and needles will knit 3 different gauges. If you care about the size of your finished object, knit a gauge swatch before you start!
- Don’t guess when choosing which size garment to knit. You have the power to make every knit fit perfectly. Take body measurements and take into consideration how much ease you want in the finished item. Just because you wear a medium in a store bought sweater, doesn’t mean you can just knit the middle size in a sweater pattern. (Combine this with #1 and you’ll be unstoppable!)
- ”It’ll block out” is a lie we choose to believe. There are going to be small imperfections that will resolve with a good blocking, sure. But if you’re at the point where you’re telling yourself “it’ll block out” you already know, deep down, that it’s not true.
- If you suspect a yarn isn’t right for the pattern and you use it anyway, you’ll regret it. If that’s the only yarn you have available, you’d be better off choosing a different pattern for it. You’re never going to wear a sweater so stiff it can stand on its own or so stretched out it reaches your knees.
- Always make a note of project details to keep with your WIP. I have lost count of how many projects I’ve frogged because they sat untouched for so long I didn’t know what they were. Or someone asks you to make them another hat just like the one you made them 4 years ago. It was their favorite hat ever and they lost it, so you can’t even look at it to try to recreate it.
- Don’t be afraid to frog. If you don’t like it, you won’t use it. Time knitting is never wasted. Ripping out an entire sweater doesn’t erase the hundred hours you’ve enjoyed practicing your hobby. Let the time spent knitting be just as worthwhile as the finished object.
One of the best things about knitting is that there’s always something else to learn if you want to. After 22 years of knitting, I’m still learning from every swatch, crazy experiment, and finished object. The time spent has been totally worth it, whether I was knitting or frogging.
Kelly Spenhoff 