Everyone who knits frogs, why do you?
I tend to frog when I don’t think the yarn, needles or pattern are not working to my satisfaction. Not when I’ve made an error. I like to think I creatively incorporate my errors into my patterns.
I like to let mistakes lie for a bit, let your knitting sit overnight, often in the middle of the night, or during a dog walk, I can come up with a improvisation to allow me to continue. If the error is not obvious to anyone but me, I often let it go. Can I make it into part of the pattern, add some design, or shaping? Or just outright ignoring it, especially if in an underarm or other inconspicuous area. I even found a dropped stitch once that I couldn’t ladder back up and tacked it down.
I also take into account how far along I am, if not far, well I’ll rip it out, almost done. Start thinking creatively. Of course if you are going to “see” the mistake every time you look at your item. Definitely rip it out and fix the problem we must be at peace with what we knit. Most of us have left in mistakes that in retrospect we wish we hadn’t and at other times felt we wasted a lot of effort correcting something that wasn’t worth correcting.
On the other hand, I am very particular with my projects, I like the pattern and the yarn to be perfect. Even the needles have made me rip it, and start over with a pair with sharper points, bamboo or circulars.
The yarn talks to me, I can be halfway done or more, and have to chuck it all and frog it, if it’s not making me happy. Then, I’m off to find a new pattern that would be a good “match” for it.
It is good to give your self “permission” to get silly and playful with the yarn again.
So which kinds of frogger are you? What is your tipping point?
May your needles fly as fast as dragonflies…
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I'm sooooo similar to you in my frogging mentality. I too have been known to tack a dropped stitch down, although it's been a long long time since I did that. I agree that sometimes it's best to let something sit without immediately reacting as you may feel differently about it. For example, I thought my recent Emily sweater was going to be too small and I was sooo close to frogging it and yet I went forward and it's now one of my favorite knits ever.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lot like you also. Sometimes I'll frog, sometimes I'll try to hide the mistake. Sometimes I just leave it in knowing that no one will notice.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind frogging. I love the process of knitting. Ripping something out and restarting doesn't bother me.
If I am knitting something that is going on display, I will frog until what I'm knitting is up to the specifications expected. If it's a sock with a hiccup on the bottom of the foot, and I'm the one who will wear it, I fudge a repair.
ReplyDeleteHowever, sometimes there is a project where the yarn and pattern are not happy together. I put these projects aside in a bin for "aging." Sometimes a year later, I can figure out why I was unsure, and then either fix the problem or rip.
I have no problem ripping if I'm clear about it. However, sometimes decisionmaking can be difficult (especially if the dream I had of the project was very clear when I started). I have to sort of divorce the dream before I can rip.
Luckily, relationships with projects involve only me, so I don't have to wait for the other party (the yarn) to agree I'm right. The yarn is happy to do whatever... or nothing.
It typically takes me a long time to frog something. I like to walk away from it, ponder the reason for frogging, and decide how I am going to fix the problem. Sometimes that takes a while. I've waited up to a year before frogging.
ReplyDeleteIf it's mohair, I don't bother with the frogging. Chances are nobody - not even me - will know. =)
In fact my frogger mentality now is a bit like yours, I think. Though a little more leaning towards the non-satisfactory-what-ever = FROGG!!! Cause if something really annoyes me and there's no way to correct it, while work still on pins, there's simply one way out of it = FROGG!
ReplyDeleteBut, you can get som funny results whith randomly repeated errors and on the way always learn something new or re-learn what slipped the mind, so if that occurs then I go on and KNIT.
I honestly kept reading the first line as "everyone knits frogs" and kept wondering if I was missing out on some amphibian patterns.
ReplyDeletemy mentality is that it depends. depends on how far I am, depends on if it's going to mess me up further down the line, depends on if anyone can see it, depends on if I can even see it after I've walked away for a bit....
I am a procrastinator in the frogging department. I like the give the item the benefit of the doubt, until I realize with absolute certainty that it just has to be frogged. I might frog for a mistake but it depends on the mistake. I have no problem frogging a completed object if I just don't end up liking it. Basically, I don't mind frogging, but I need to know it is necessary before doing so.
ReplyDelete