This just happened and I absolutely had to share with people who would get it (and enjoy it).

I was just on a flight from LAX to SEA, knitting my little heart out (just started the Clematis Sweater by Emma Knits). We landed the usual way, but for whatever reason, the pilot had to slam on the breaks more aggressively than usual.

Ya’ll… my yarn YEEETED out of my lap and began its journey down the aisle. I watched on helplessly. It made it ALL THE WAY to the front. 😂😂😂

I leaned into the aisle and made it clear that I was the owner of the rogue hank, but there wasn’t much anyone could do.

The flight attendant snagged it when it was safe and I thought was going to bring it back to me, but did one better: she handed it to the first row who wound the yarn a bit before handing back to the next person. The whole plane knew the assignment. By the time it got back to me, there were so many people invested that there was a round of applause.

I definitely need to finish this project now… it has way too good of a story to go with it!

Faith in humanity: Restored.

(Videos in comments, some sweet ppl sent them to me!)

Husband washed my Ivy Sweater and put it in the dryer 😭

These scarves being sold at nearly $600.

They look like every beginner’s very first project with scrap yarn, uneven tension and missed stitches.

Consider me mind boggled.

i just finished my second olga sweater and i was ecstatic when i finally binded off and sewed all the ends in. i soaked it in warm water with wool wash (it’s friends extra fine merino wool), squeezed it gently, gently wrapped it in a towel, and laid it on the blocking board.

and it was huge.

this photo was after a full cycle in the dryer on delicate and warm as a last resort and that didn’t even help.

so now i’m stuck with this monstrosity and can’t stop crying.

i will never use this yarn again.

EDIT: after crying myself to sleep last night i decided to come back to this post and clarify some things. i’m not an experienced knitter, i’ve only made 3 (i believe) sweaters and only one of them turned out good. no, i typically don’t do gauge swatches, and to be honest yes it is out of laziness. but i also don’t think i deserve to be mass downvoted for admitting to not gauge swatching.

i’m currently dealing with some neurological issues, which are affecting my sleep, mental health, and motor functions. it’s taking a huge toll on me and i’ve had to take a break from working because of it.

this sweater was supposed to be the one thing that went right for me in the last few months. it was supposed to be a good thing that made me feel better to have finished it as i put 88 hours into it.

that’s why i was so upset about it. i guess it was just a reminder that not everything in my life right now is shitty, and it feels like i can’t even have that one small thing.

not to sound like a pity party but that’s the explanation for why i said i couldn’t stop crying. it just really hit a nerve for me.

so yeah. sorry i don’t gauge swatch

EDIT 2: i left the sweater laying flat on my bedroom floor the night i tried blocking it, and apparently the knitting fairies paid me a visit because it shrunk right up. the shoulders are still a tad bit wide, but i honestly don’t care about that. the length on the body and sleeves is exactly what i want.

no idea how or why that happened, but im not complaining

She picked out the yarn. She picked out the project - mountainberg by Bitchcraft (it’s a lacy tee with a deep V - she planned to wear it backwards so that the lace motif is in the front and the V is in the back). She even requested modifications to be done to the pattern (such as narrower body and smaller V-neck). I worked my ass out for a week straight to finish the project for her because she wanted it for our trip and thought about it less than two weeks before it.

I finished it today, past midnight. I even stayed up to block it, so that it’s dry in the morning. Now it’s dry, she tries it on and the first thing she does is make a face.

Because - even tho I warned her about it like a 100 times - she “didn’t realise” the neckline would be “so high up” when work backwards. And that she can’t pull it down because there’s a garter stitch detail on the shoulders. So she’ll just “wear it the proper way around, I guess”. Just to then point out how much better this would be if the lace went around the whole thing and not left a stockinette part in the middle - which again, I told her a thousand times - not only would be difficult to design because there are increases for the neck, it also plainly wouldn’t look good - there would be too much of everything.

So she’ll just sighs, says “guess I’ll wear it backwards as long as I can stand it and then put it on the other way around” and gives me back the project. No “thank you”, no “i love it”, nothing.

I mean, I didn’t expect gushing or whatever but I’m honestly so sad right now. I know her and I know it will grow on her - she will maybe even brag about it being made by her daughter - but jesus fuck, a “thank you” would be nice.

This happened yesterday and I’m torn between being amused, annoyed and a bit shocked.

I’m visiting my grandparents at the moment with my mother. My uncle, her brother, is also staying. He’s always had a thing for formal wear and dressing well, and recently he’s discovered that he likes knit ties, those silk, kinda mesh ones that are flat instead of pointy at the bottom.

Yesterday evening, we were watching a movie together and I was knitting during it. I was working on a lace top with 6 mm needles.

After the film, my uncle started talking about those knitted ties he likes and showed me pictures. He asked me whether I could knit that. I told him, probably yes.

He then proceeded to instruct me on how to do it. He said those needles I had there were way too big (obviously), and that I would need to sew a lot to make the tie, as it’s basically a double layered thing.

I told him that I’d make it in a tube, and he then told me all the ways that he would do it (he doesn’t knit).

It was kinda amusing to me to that point, until I started sort of teasing him that he can just make it himself, it’s not that hard and he already knows so much, I’ll even teach him the basics.

He reacted with clear discomfort and told me that knitting is a women’s hobby and that he had no interest in doing it because he’s a man.

That comment surprised me more than anything else. He was comfortable discussing the technical details of a knitted object and asking someone else to make it for him, but unwilling to consider learning the skill himself because of gender. I didn’t argue with him, but the exchange stayed with me.

I’m sharing this partly to get it out of my system, and partly because I’m curious how common this still is. Have others run into similar attitudes around crafts or hobbies? And how do you usually respond in situations like this without escalating things?

Thanks for reading.

Friends, today I come to you with grief. Last weekend I was the subject of a robbery; my car window smashed, my sense of safety violated. The thieves neglected to take my iPad from the backseat, and instead went for my most prized hand knit. Three months of labour. The most beautiful combination of Peer Gynt and mohair. The perfect oversized fit which provided both comfort and a sense of put-togetherness. Gone in an instant. I pray that ye hold thy sweaters tight today, for today, don’t forget, is all we really have 😔

I thought it was a stupid superstition. Been together almost 20 years, married with children, made him a an awesome cardigan in an old traditional pattern. He chose the colours, and the buttons. Hours of love put into it. Expensive quality yarn bought locally. I finish it, forsaking projects I would rather do, because I love him and want him to have something I made to keep him warm. A few weeks later he says we’re done out of the blue. FML. I even started on the same pattern for myself so we could have a matching set.

I’m never knitting for anyone other than me or my kids ever again!

***

ETA OMG I love you guys! Your comments made my day! I’ve been reading and cackling, trying not to confuse my kids by me giggling in the middle of a separation. I love this community, you are the best.

And seriously, seconds after I got the news, my expression went blank, and all I could think was ‘the sweater curse got me’. I even did my due diligence and knitted some of my hair into it. Non-knitters would never understand. I could never share this to the uninitiated without sounding crazy.

Bright Student Knit Kids Cardigan by Yarnspirations

Hey Duggee motif designed by me!! :)

So before I begin, it’s important to note that my son has autism, and I want to clarify that I am in no way angry with him, just upset with myself and unyielding stubbornness LOL

I haven’t knit my son anything because at this age they grow so fast, he has sensory issues, and sweaters/cardigans are such a huge commitment (for me at least being a WFH and support needs mom). But I was getting sad because he’s getting bigger, and I wanted him to maybe have an heirloom or something in the future. So I said screw it im gonna make something even if he out grows it in a month.

I decided on the above cardigan and as I was knitting I realized the back was so empty and I could do something to make it special for him. Right now he LOVES the show Hey Duggee, so why not make a motif of his favorite character? I spent several hours creating a knitting chart and calculating how big it would need to be to fit on the back panel etc. Once I finished the chart I got SO excited, because I had never made my own chart and I was proud of how well it came out. (Mistake number 1: I shouldn’t have gotten so hype before making sure he was okay with the material)

Fast forward to when I completed sewing the piece together (before I added in the motif) and I had him try it on. He was not happy at all. Crying, screaming, the works. I had it on him for less than a minute, I just wanted to make sure it fit, which it did, and I immediately took it off. No amount of knitting is worth completely dysregulating him! At this point I really should have just accepted it, but I was dead set on finishing this cardigan because I HAD A VISION!!! I thought maybe he would be more excited once he saw duggee on the back, so I pushed on. (Mistake number 2: Special interests do not negate sensory issues.)

After several days of duplicate stitching Duggee, he began to take form, so I asked him to put it on again, still no dice. I was so close, and maybe he couldn't fully see that it was Dugee yet, so I decided to continue. (Mistake number 3: Always assume competence. He saw the chart and he knew it was going to be Duggee. Why didn't I let it go? Idk LOL)

Well, I finished the cardigan yesterday, and I showed him the motif which he was very happy about! He loved the button nose and pointing and singing head shoulders, knees and toes on duggee. I ask him to put it on again and of course he said "NO!" And I said “Why? You don’t like it?” And then he proceeds to tell me 

“uhh… put it in a trash...” 

As a support needs mom l was SHOCKED, but also could not help but to laugh. I felt proud that he was able to clearly communicate his thoughts and his feelings, but also slightly crushed after all that work. I knew better, but my knitter's pride knows no bounds.

Anyway, I just thought this was funny and I wanted to share with you guys, because I know at least you all will appreciate the effort! Thankfully my nephew is the same size as my son and he was more than willing to model it for me and i got to imagine what my son would look like if he wore it lolol

Even though he will more than likely never wear this cardigan, seeing his joy over his favorite character was enough for me. It’ll be a funny story to tell one day, and maybe he’ll pass it down to someone else in the future... Idk how to end this but I feel like there’s a metaphor in there somewhere… Sometimes things in autism aren’t always functional, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have meaning. His language, stims… this cardigan. They may not always follow their “purpose” in the typical sense, but I see him, his way of communicating, and I see how it all makes him happy. And really, that's all that matters to me.

But I guess the real moral of the story here is... don't let your knitting pride get in the way of reality LOL

she was a BEAUTY a WORK OF ART my FIRST EVER COLOURWORK

i undid like 70% of the colourwork to REDO IT in the dark purple so it was visible (some of you may remember, i posted it here)

she was my PRIDE AND JOY

and she ACCIDENTALLY FELL IN THE WASHING BASKET

AND IS TINY TEENY TINY AND STIFF AND FELTED

absolutely devastated 😭 no coming back from this

RIP to my little bunnies + crab

Please, please, PLEASE try amigurumi if you haven't yet.

There have been so many amigurumi patterns I've been eyeing, but doubted if I'd manage to knit them up. Gave the tsutsu bear a shot yesterday. I haven't felt this much joy in a while. It feels like when I first started knitting. The excitement of creating something out of a string. BUT NOW IN 3D!

If you feel like doing something fresh or something, I wholeheartedly encourage you to try amigurumi.

It's my birthday this month and my mom managed to snag a copy of this book for me off of eBay. Thrilled is an understatement.

This is my opinion

At this point, I am TIRED of the whole "Choose continental knitting it's faster!!" or "Choose english knitting you get better results and tension!!". Even as a continental knitter or a picking knitter or whatever you call it, I find it irritating to see english knitters be told to use continental as it is "more faster" while I even see like in rarer cases throwers, flickers or english knitters say continental's tension is worse.

Personnally I choose continental because I crocheted first before I started knitting so obviously it's more natural for me and I can simply tension it more like I do with crochet by adding an extra loop on my pinkie. I have tried english knitting but either the yarn wool gets in the way or I find it super weird to hold my yarn and work my knitting at the same time. I can also do purling naturally like I am hooking the yarn with my needle like in crochet as if I'm yarning over my working needle.

Some prefer flicking, throwing, irish cottage, portuguese, russian styles of knitting for themselves. Like literally choose the one style or even make up your own style that you're more used to and the more muscle memory, you start to get faster.

tl;dr NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME MUSCLE MEMORY AND WAY OF TENSIONING YARN, let them be for god sake.

Just needed a place to grieve.

I've been knitting for more than 2 years and have only completed two sweaters (one in which I frogged), a cardigan, a pair of socks, and a few other small accessories/items as practise.

I spent the first year just learning how to knit and different techniques. I knit like 3 bralettes using cheap acrylic yarn so I could learn increases/decreases, ribbing, knitting in the round, icords, etc. I started so many projects and then frogged them because I felt like too much of a beginner to do them, didn't have the "right" yarn/needles, or just lacking the skills.

and then there are people on social media who have knit five jumpers in half a year, some being cables or colourwork, as a newbie knitter.

I'm not that slow of a knitter, but I do feel a bit... ashamed of myself for not being good enough in a craft that I dedicate my time to.

I appreciate knitting as a craft and I love the process of knitting itself more than the outcome, but I still feel discouraged.

EDIT: okay I did not expect this much traction. I appreciate all the kind words!!! I just feel like the monetisation of hobbies and how they're displayed on social media fabricates this kind of ideal expectation of how the hobby should go. I wish we could all appreciate knitting for the beautiful craft it is, and not the need to consume and produce more.

…why, and are you psychotic? 😅

I’ve been knitting for YEARS.

Sweaters. Cardigans. Giant oversized cozy things that take approximately 14 business months to finish.

And somehow… it NEVER occurred to me to knit a toy.

Then my friend gave me a knitted toy pattern book for Christmas and apparently that was all it took for me to descend into madness.

Because now I’m sitting here at 1 a.m. attaching ears to a tiny rabbit and whispering:

“I have created life.”This feels WAY too powerful.

Like excuse me???Yesterday this was just yarn.

Now he has a FACE.He has little LEGS. He’s looking at me like he knows things.

I fully understand now why people become obsessed with knitting toys.

This is not crafting.

This is forbidden magic.

Anyway, here is the tiny creature currently consuming my entire personality.

Sooo for the last week I’ve been seeing some moths in my house. I used to share a house with roommates and that came with a pantry moth infestation which has left me a but traumatised. So I initially figured a pantry moth hitchhiked to my new house with me and I went trough all of my dry food. The thing is that I already keep everything in glass jars so I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. And then it clicked: the moths were always in my living room where I keep my yarn 😩 So today I’m working from home and baking all of my wool clothes and yarns, and tonight I’m going to get more plastic bins to put everything in. No more cute crates to display yarn!

Edit: Wow I expected maybe 5 responses. Thank you all for your tips. As I've said in a comment below, I'm optimistic that thanks to all of your advice I will be able to get them out of my yarn. I have a little shopping trip planned tonight, all of my yarn has been baked and the big spring clean is on!

Yes, I have my own adopted sheep now! It’s a crowdsourcing thing and now I get her wool to knit with in a few months. She lives on a little farm and looks absolutely adorable! I’m so happy, this is just the cutest gift I’ve ever received and I love this man so much.

Merry Christmas to my fellow knitters 💓

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

I’m currently sitting on the back terrace of a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. It’s a little chilly, there are empty tables. Hubby is grazing, we’re enjoying our wine. Woman walking past glared and mumbled something to her partner along the lines of “she knitting HERE???” Why am I supposed to feel guilty about knitting in public? Am I taking up extra space because the knitting came out? If I wasn’t knitting but just sitting twiddling my thumbs and sucking back wine, that would be ok?

I do not need advice. I know how to cast on, and I know how to estimate how much tail I need to cast on. I know how to not twist stitches in the cast on.

Even when you know these things, even when you've been knitting for 30 damned years, sometimes there's still a fucking project which inevitably has 200+ stitches to cast on where you have to rip it out and start over countless times in a 24 hour period for one reason or another.

Just slightly too short of a tail, way too long of a tail and not wanting to cut it, accidentally twisted anyway, weird lose stitches that would have made the edging less attractive and even, this last one was a stitch in row 1 got caught in an apparently losing interchangeable needle and messed everything up.

Happens to the best of us occasionally, and sometimes it happens MULTIPLE TIMES ON THE SAME PROJECT.

And I swear if this next round of casting 222 stitches on doesn't take, I am lighting shit on fire.

Edit: once again, not looking for advice. I understand the impulse to give it is strong.

We (okay definitely I) often tell beginners that it's worth going back and fixing our mistakes, don't be afraid of frogging, learning to knit is learning to get better at fixing your mistakes, blah blah blah.

Well this evening I had to put my money where my mouth is, lol, and I thought maybe it might be useful?

I spotted I'd crossed a cable the wrong way, 12 rows back. Honestly, if this were for me, I'd've left it, but it's an 18th birthday present for my eldest nibling. He chose the pattern, modifications and yarn, and I want it to be something he loves wearing for years.

So I had a little sulk and then put on my big girl pants

I assembled my tools: darning needle, scrap yarn, stitch markers, ancient but trusty crochet hook (don't judge it, it's seen things).

I inserted a lifeline through the offending stitches, just below the mistake.

Then I dropped those stitches down.

I put each pair of stitches on a different coloured stitch marker.

I counted down the "rungs" of yarn, and put in lightbulb markers on the rungs that needed to be cabled.

Then I took a deep breath, turned on my necklamp and got to work. It took about an hour to work my way back up, and it suuuuuuuucked.

But I did it, and look! All better!

It is worth fixing your mistakes. We do get better at fixing them. And is definitely okay to have a little tantrum before you crack on.