Oh if only that were true! But it is not. I make plenty of mistakes and many of them involve yarn and needles. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the experience and nothing keeps me humble like unraveling 50 rows of color work. I have shared photos of the socks I am making for my son; no need to revisit the scene of the crime. I am now entering version 3.0. I really don’t mind because I went into the project knowing that there would be a HUGE learning curve. I love patterns. I love well written patterns. I love following well written patterns. I am not a modifier by nature. I have never modified a pattern to this degree. Fortunately, it is springtime in New York, and I have time to tinker with this endeavor before they will be worn.
The cuff was ok. It was downhill from there.
I don’t necessarily consider this next experience a mistake rather, a lesson in common sense knitting. I am making the Spindrift Shawl by Helen Stewart. This is a great pattern! (thank you, Helen!) I had the presence of mind to utilize life lines in this pattern (for the first time in my life) What I failed to do was track what rows contained a life line. Fortunately, Helen uses a chart which makes it easy to count stitches on the needles to determine the row you are knitting. Now I place a line every 25 rows.


Have you used life lines before? I would love to hear how you apply them in your work.