Is your knitting perfect?

[Amber]

I hope this doesn't sound like a really stupid question, but I'm serious. I've only been knitting for about 6 months now, but compared to what I see people post on here, the stuff I've made looks, well...sad. I haven't really seen many hand knit items up close, other than my own, of course, but I'm just wondering what other people's stuff looks like. Would anyone be able to tell it's handmade?

I guess I'd like to know what level of “perfection” I should be shooting for. Not that I expect my stuff to be perfect, but I am trying to improve and I just don't have any sense of what things “should” look like. I know it's silly to compare my hand knits to store-bought items, so what do really good hand knit items look like?

[Teiris]

I'd also like to know...

I get so frustrated, I've never finished anything. I've frogged everything I've started. I'm feeling really discouraged. :/

[Jan in CA]

Umm...no. My knitting is far from perfect! I don't think anyone has perfect knitting, but those who have knit a long time have an edge. The more you practice the more even your tension.

If you are making mistakes a lot it helps to have a lifeline which is an embroidery thread or something that you put through a row which has no mistakes. As you work you move it up. If you make a mistake you can't fix or live with you can frog to the lifeline and start from there. It's saved my butt a bunch of times!

[Jenelle]

My knitting is far from perfect too

But hey, its a hobby that's good to know, eh?

[Lana]

I've been knitting more than 40 years now. I think somewhere between when I started and now, I did a better job.

I have never compared any handknit to a machine knit. We're not machines.

I think I frog or tink everything I make now. I know I have to pay a lot more attention to what I'm doing when I'm doing pattered stitches.

You can look forward to getting better over the years. Be patient with yourself and enjoy the process.

[Julie]

Teiris, a little word of advice: stop ripping everything out! I tell that to new knitters all the time. Just keep going forward, knowing that your first few projects are going to look wonky. It's a fact of life...but you will be finishing things, have something to show for all of your work, and you will gradually learn how to fix tour mistakes and you'll become more consistent. You can do it!

[Ingrid]

The more you knit, the more even your tension. Don't go for any kind of perfection, just knit. You automatically get better.

I'd say my stitches are even and I can follow just about any pattern, but perfect? Never.

As Lana said, we're talking hand knits here. My sweaters from Land's End are more even than my knitting, but then again, if I wanted another Land's End sweater, I'd buy one--probably for less money than I can knit one, too!

The more you knit, the better you get; the better you get, the more you know how to hide/correct mistakes, because there always are some.

Egad, perfect? I don't even go into a project hoping for that; I just hope that I don't have a lot of mistakes, and that's good enough for me. I now scoff at the perfection of my Land's End and LL Bean sweaters! :rofling:

And chances are, most mistakes only YOU can see because you know what was supposed to happen.

[feministmama]

Perfect? What's that?

[tab]

I have to answer this with a resounding HECK NO! My tension is usually pretty good, and I can generally catch big mistakes and tink to fix them, but my knitting is definitely not perfect. I'm only human.