21 threads:

At 5:38 PM CynCyn said...

1) random.org for random number generator. I used the integer option

2) worst knitting disaster from which I have yet to recover. My friends and I were all in love LOVE LUUURRRVE with the Rogue pattern. Seeing someone's finished product sent us into a frenzied state, and we ordered peace fleece yarn (4-5 of us). We swatched. We cast on... we were kinda sort of, not deliberately racing with each other. The cable pattern is tricky and you gotta keep an eye on both the chart and the written directions... r u following?
* I note that i failed to thoroughly read the directions and did not start my kangaroo pocket. DARN IT!! Rip back... 20 rows? and redo.

*as I'm about to attach the kangaroo pocket (so, I'm a little less than 1/2 way done with the front/back (it's knit in the round)... we all notice that we are knitting it WAY TOO TIGHT. As in, this THING that I've been working so hard on will be TOO SMALL for me if I kept going.

THe project has been banished to the furthest depths of my closet until i forgive it. I still love the yarn, the color, and the pattern. I suppose I'm waiting to forgive myself.

 

At 6:37 PM Deborah said...

Just ONE knitting disaster??? I'm color challenged so many of my disasters involve bad choices with color combining.

But my worst disasters involve knitting and money. I and a friend took a day trip to this knitting store we heard about in Englewood, NJ. The place had the most gawgeous yarn but no prices and no labels. They were all boutique yarn custom made for the owner. I searched and fondled and ended up buying $350 dollars in yarn for a 1 project sweater (that I'm still working on 1 1/2 years later).

The owner measured me, wrote me a "custom" pattern and wound all the yarn before she gave me the price. I remember saying to myself, "self, what could this cost, it ain't cashmere?" Well I'll never do that again!

 

At 7:05 PM Bezzie said...

I like this one: http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/Public/SpinWheel.html

I like watching to see where the number lands!

My worst knitting disaster? Probably the Dumply Tank. It was the Shapely Tank by White Lies Designs, that one should NOT knit when they don't realize they're twisting their stitches. You should also NOT knit it out of Bernat Cotton Tots. Ugh. I think I threw that one away. Too shameful for even goodwill!

 

At 7:42 PM Unknown said...

My worst knitting disaster was entirely my fault. I decided cables were too complicated & not realizing what taking them out would do I cast on the same # of stitches. Throughout the whole enormous thing I had a huge case of denial going on about the size of the monstrosity. Jake (the friend I knit it for) can wear it at the same time as his wife, wouldn't shock me if they could get the girls in there too!

 

At 8:17 AM Robin said...

My two worst disasters are actually chronicled over at Sarah's blog - theoriesofstring.blogspot.com. Do I get extra credit that I am getting a prize already for how hideous they are?

 

At 7:59 PM pigbook1 said...

My worst knitting disaster was not so much mine as my husbands. He washed (on hot) and machine dried my first hand knit sox. OMG I was (might still) going to kill him. I heard of the contest from girl is crafty's comments.

 

At 5:04 AM Lulu said...

My FIRST worst was before I was married - trying to impress the fiance! I knitted him a sweater with tapestry wool - very thick, very heavy and VERY expensive! He is a large man (4XL) and I had (what felt like) thousands of stitches on the needles. He kept saying "Make it longer, make it longer". It ended up being below his knees! He looked at it and said "Oh good, I can wear it in the garage" - which he did, and it was oiled and soiled within minutes. I tried washing it once - couldn't get it out of the bathtub! So it got thrown away!! (But I still married him anyway!)
lotsa love
lulu

 

At 10:13 PM sunneshine said...

My worst knitting disaster was knitting the Hush dress from knitty. I ordered all my yarn from Halcyon, carefully checked the lots to make sure all were the same. Knitting, knitting, knitting - four inches from the top lace, I realized that there was a big huge STRIPE in the knitting where one of the color lots was wrong! And of course, it was right at my widest spot - nothing like drawing attention... By now I am 25 hours into a 30 hour project. I wrote Halcyon who sincerely appologised and supplied new yarn. I did re-knit the dress (which I wear and love), but had to wait till I was past the point where I realized the mistake before I could frog the original...

 

At 11:34 PM cpurl17 said...

Hmmm I accidentally felted my Olympic sweater . And the only sweater I've made for myself.

Tonight I ripped my mystery stole off the needles and am starting over so it's a mini disaster.

 

At 11:36 PM aruni said...

ok, i have to laugh about this one. winter 2004 knitty came out when i was just moving beyond knitting rectangular things. i was taken by tempting. not owning either circs or DPNs, i went to the yarn store to buy needles and yarn. i'd never heard of gauge before, but i looked it up and swatched and noticed that i'm a loose, loose knitter. i didn't realize that you're supposed to drop down needle sizes in this situation, and instead cast on about 1/4 fewer stitches. i ended up with a very airy 2x2 ribbed...thing. oy! when i sheepishly asked about it in the yarn store and learned my mistake, i figured it was my amelia bedelia moment, and everyone has those once in a while, right? :)

 

At 11:42 PM Liz said...

My disaster was my very first sweater. I decided to make the ribby cardigan with awesome chocolate brown cascade 220. It looked like a semi-form fitting sweater so I decided to go up a size or two. Really, I must have forgot my measurements because after working on that endless stockinette and ribbing. And blocking and seaming..it was too big. Not the too big where it hangs on me. The too big where my "big" Husband fit into it perfectly! The worst part is he wouldn't wear it so it got frogged. That was over two years ago and the frogged yarn still sits in a box with that pattern. I love it and what one to wear, I just can't bring myself to knit it again. *sigh*

 

At 1:08 AM Anonymous said...

Well, mine isn't exactly a knitting disaster so to speak, but it kind of ended up being that way.

A few weeks ago I attempted and succeeded at making my DS a pair of socks in less than 48 hours - for a special "Crazy Sock Day" at his day camp. I knit practically non stop, and I finished at 9:05pm the night before the special day.

I washed them and sat them under a fan to start drying. See, I have this crazy kitten who eats stuff - namely my knitting things; like needles and yarn. Well, this little kitty managed to steal the socks. I noticed about 10 minutes after I had sat them out. They were recovered from his kitty condo, and then I discovered that he had chewed a hole the size of a quarter right into the instep of one of the socks.

48 hours, down the tubes :(

 

At 11:57 AM Criosa said...

mine would probably be the baby sweater. knit it up in pieces. after much procrastination started seaming, couldn't get the arm to line up right. ignored it forever. about a year later I decided that it'd probably get done a lot quicker if I ripped it out and reknit it, so that's what I did.

my knitting Olympics project was also a disaster, in yarn choice, pattern choice, etc. it's been frogged.

 

At 12:11 PM Batty said...

My worst knitting disaster? It's here (sorry about the long string of stuff, I can't post a link in the comments):

http://spookyknitting.blogspot.com/2006/04/its-big-its-bad-its-banff.html

I kept buying yarn because I kept running out of yarn. Yes, row gauge matters in a raglan. And you know the crazy thing?

The width is right on -- 50". Unfortunately, my chest is 33.5". I should have known there'd be a problem!

 

At 7:39 PM Anonymous said...

My knitting disaster is called Bobalicious (a Knitty pattern from a couple years ago). It was an easy beginner pattern which is what I needed at the time. I substituted Lambs Pride Burly Spun. Nice yarn, the finished product looked good. The disaster happens when you put it on. First, the bulky yarn makes it so heavy, the shrug doesn't stay on very well. It kept falling off! Second, it's so hug and bulky and heavy that it won't fit under a coat, so you can't wear it outside. Finally, the sleeves are so huge and heavy and bobble covered that you can't knit in it!!! Or do anything while wearing it really.

 

At 12:37 AM z's momma said...

My first sweater. Actually my first attempt at a sweater was Sonnet from Knitty. Easy plug and chug sweater right? uhmm...got some blue boucle acrylic from Mikes and knit away. The fit is okay, but I look like a blue ewok! And it's unfroggable because it's that darn acrylic boucle (okay, I was a new knitter and split stitches and such, but still).

 

At 9:40 PM BEESTLYproducts said...

HARDCORE from knitty.com. I didn't know what gauge meant yet, and jumped right in. the body was sooooo tight and strangely the sleeves were enourmous and too short. it was like a form fitting cape. i threw on some buttons that were too small for the holes, it didn't matter at that point, and took pictures for my blog. but... no one has ever seen it. not even dave. it haunts me from underneath my bed.

 

At 11:11 PM Anonymous said...

Worst knitting disaster? Easy. I was a newbie knitter, along with several friends. A mutual friend was diagnosed with cancer. Off I went to LYS, bought a bunch of yarn and a pattern to make squares for an afghan. Everyone would contribute. We all took yarn and pattern. Same yarn, same size needles.

Gauge? What's that?

With six knitters, we had six entirely differently sized squares, varying as much as five inches in size (and shape--squares to rectangles). I took the pile of knitted pieces back to the LYS. The owner, who'd sold me the yarn and pattern, was there--and the look of horror on her face told me we were, indeed, not a very competent bunch.

Long story short, after much agonizing and blocking, we put together an afghan that was H-shaped. We gave it to the cancer patient with the instructions that she should view it as a piece of primitive folk art done with the best of intentions.

Gauge matters. Really.

 

At 12:37 AM sunneshine said...

uh, really fun to read all the comments and know that I was not alone with my knitting mistakes... and thanks Mubs (my grandma) for pounding swatching and gauge into my head when I was too young to know that it might be optional... Fun contest!!

 

At 10:58 PM Unknown said...

Hmm. I've done my share of ripping and reknitting, but I guess I don't have many really huge disasters. I take it out and start over, and usually things turn out okay in the end (see my post from this afternoon, featuring a cut-up baby sweater with the shoulders finally back on the needles).

My worst/most embarrassing disaster are the felted clogs I made for my MIL this past Christmas. I made them for both my parents and both his parents. Three worked fine, MIL's just...didn't. I felted and felted, and they ended up looking somewhat like brain coral. Ripply yet still WAY too big. I stretched out the ripples, but just couldn't get them to shrink any more. All four pairs were done in KP WOTA, so I still can't figure out why they all worked except hers. Oh, wait. It's because she's a knitter.

 

At 10:01 AM buttercup said...

I just came across your blog from the NJ Knitters ring.

Here's my disaster... Tomato from No Sheep for You. I thought it was coming out WAY TO BIG when I knit it. But I'm a big girl so naturally it's going to look big. I sought out the advise of other knitters who had knit and worn their Toms, and they said, yes, that sounds right, it is kind of baggy and droopy at first.

I knit on - to the bottom edge, picked up and knit the neck and tried it on again. The neck line was almost under my boobs.

Even tho I swatched and got gauge in the round I still created this disaster. What I need to remember is the definition of negative ease and to go by my measurement and not the next size up.

 

Post a Comment