Learning From My Crochet Mistakes

This evening was a highly frustrating example. I spent an hour working on a crochet toy’s head, following one of my own patterns. I am usually pretty good at multi-tasking. Especially when that multi-tasking consists of watching tv and hooking yarn.

Not so yesterday evening.

I don’t know if it was the fact I have been unwell the last few days, or the new tv series I was equally hooked on. But it just kept going wrong. By the end of the evening I have had to unravel more than twenty rounds, and literally discarded two attempts entirely through sheer frustration.

Why Crochet Mistakes Happen?

Mistakes happen for a few reasons. But they can generally be put into one of three categories: experience, focus and equipment errors.

Lack Of Experience

I can forgive myself numerous crochet mistakes when I don’t know what to do. There are learning curves at every level, and sometimes with new patterns I get it wrong a few times before I work out how to get it right.

You can do all the research on learning to crochet in the world, but you are still going to need to make actual practical mistakes in order to progress. That’s why it’s a good idea to get some experience under your belt before dashing off to crochet your first bikini. I’ve yet to meet anyone deep into crochet who hasn’t failed in some earlier pattern reading or translation.

This obviously wasn’t the case yesterday. I wrote this pattern. I have followed this pattern (that I wrote) on numerous occasions. I really, really should have known what to do. Which means the problem was….

Loosing Focus

When you habitually do something, you start letting your brain and your hands work without your conscious input. Crocheting granny squares, single crocheting rows and adding length is something that most experienced crocheters do without actually realising their brains are engaged.

For me, standard increases and decreases no longer require an intensely furrowed brow and notepad like they used to. But I wasn’t suppose to be doing a simple increase/decrease. I was supposed to be working the stitches with differences in each round, to reflect a contoured head shape.

Essentially, I completely lost focus on what my fingers were doing and strayed irreparably far from the pattern. My brain went back to what it knows and my fingers did as they were told.

Three. Times. In. A. Row.

Personally, I blame The Flash. The ridiculously friendly, fun, baby-faced speedster ruined my yarn.

The Wrong Crochet Equipment

Sometimes your crochet project is doomed from the start. And it’s because you’ve chosen the wrong yarn type, picked up the wrong sized hook or just failed to remember to buy something you need. (I’m looking at you, toy stuffing).

Having the wrong kit can occasionally turn out okay, but usually it means you need to put a pause on your hooking and come back to it when you’re ready.

Learning From Crochet Mistakes

The point of this post isn’t self pity (… okay, it’s a bit of self pity). Or to blame poor super heroes for distracting me yesterday evening. The lesson here isn’t to stop watching tv while you crochet. It’s not to lock yourself away in a blank, lonely room and only hook in silence.

It’s to learn from your mistakes.

When I messed up the first time around, I should have paused the tv temporarily. Or moved onto a project that was at a more simple point. Or put down what I was doing, and let myself enjoy the show. We are all told from the word go that crochet is soothing and relaxing.

This can make messing up and getting cross feel like some kind of forbidden juxtaposition, but it isn’t. Please rest assured that your annoyance, mistakes and frustration are all totally normal.

However long you have been crocheting, mistakes will still happen from time to time. All you can do is try to stay calm, and work out why they happened. Don’t plug on blindly doing the same thing, making the same mistakes again. Don’t be like me yesterday evening.

When I pick up my hook again this evening, I will try and learn from my own crochet mistakes of last night. Moving forward to actually making the thing I was going to produce the night before. Happily and hopefully without any more mistakes!

Happy Crocheting! Lucy Kate x

More Tips For Crocheters

• How to speed up your hook
• Slanted crochet disasters
• Why is it hard for some people to learn to crochet?
• Why is my crochet smaller than it should be?
• Can you keep crocheting interesting over time?