Do you ever get a little nervous?

[Mommy22alyns]

I have my first child sweater ready to finish - just one part of a seam, then buttons and I'll be done.

It took me forever to get to picking up the stitches for the collar. I was so afraid of messing it up after I spent so long making each piece! I'm still not happy with it 100%, but I'm kind of a super-perfectionist, which doesn't really work well in knitting, does it?

So now I'm up to the part in the IK tilted duster where I have to pick up nearly 200 stitches for the "skirt." And I'm kind of afraid to do it! It's gorgeous yarn and I just don't want to screw up what I've already done.

Is that totally stupid? Does anyone else feel this way, especially new knitters?

[Jan in CA]

I balk at anything that requires seaming so I've mostly done raglan type sweaters and most of them for charity. I'm sure you'll do just fine!

[MrsDavis3]

As you yourself point out, the tilted duster is an ambitious undertaking. But I'm not quite sure why picking up stitches is particularly daunting for you. If you pick them all up, and then don't like the way it has been done, you can back up. It's not like you've sewn it in or glued it or something, right?

[suzeeq]

Yes, if it's been done wrong, you can undo it. You may have to a few times in order to get the st count right. It may help if you divide the edge you're picking up on into sections. Say if you divide into 4 (by measure) then you know 50 sts belong in each.

[Denise in Michigan]

Not only new knitters, but old knitters feel this way at times! I think handcrafters of all types do!

All handcrafters have some languishing unfinished projects, and I bet half of them are UFOs because we're afraid to finish them in case we lack skill and they don't turn out well. (We don't finish the other half because we suffer from Falling-in-Love-itis: the thrill of a new relationship as opposed to the hard work and sometimes drudgery of maintaining an old one.)