How to improve your knitting
I have been a knitter for over 10 years. I have struggled on some patterns and breezed through others. In order to move from one level of skill to another, I have had to do the following.
1. I have tried a lot of new patterns
When I started, my first project was a scarf. I knit a lot of scarves in the beginning. Eventually, I had to try to knit other garments: hat, socks, shawls, and finally sweaters.
2. I have tried a lot of new stitches
In each of the patterns, I learned a lot by trying new stitches. The basics, then lace, and then cables.
3. I had to learn to rip my work when it didn't look right
There are times when you realize that you're executing a stitch incorrectly. You should try to rip it back and redo it.
4. I learned how to fudge some stitches in order to get to the end
There were times when I could not stand ripping out the same row for the fifth time - so I decided to fudge it and keep going. I usually only reach this point when I am about to throw the needles down and leave the project forever. When I fudge a stitch I learn what does *not* work.
If I'm lucky, I figure out what I'm doing wrong because the stitches slowly start to look like the stitch in the pattern's picture. Sometimes, at that point, I have enough hope to rip the row one last time to try again.
5. In some cases, I had to power through the end of the work to understand how to execute a stitch correctly
If it's hopeless and I cannot figure it out, I decide to just keep going so that I can declare a work DONE. I made some horrible hats with cables early on. All that suffering taught me what to expect from a cable. If I had decided to rip the work and start over, I would made the same mistake over and over again.
6. At this point, I have made scarves, hats, socks, handwarmers, and shawls. I have also made my first horrible sweater.
I am now going to attempt to knit a sweater again. I think I'm now able to execute a barebones, non-fancy stitch sweater. I'm going to follow the same guidelines to see if I can knit a sweater successfully. I'll let you know how it goes.
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