Knitting makes me cry

[croonqueen]

I knitted for hours tonight and ended up ripping out every row.  I have dabbled in, if not immersed myself in, a million different crafts but knitting is just HARD.

I'm sorry, I just had to vent to people who would understand.  My husband is buried nose deep in his computer and just kinds of nods at me when I talk crafting.

Ok, rant is over.  I feel better now.

[soozeq]

I always used to knit and rip out when I was learning. That was because I had a limited amount of yarn (string actually) and needed to reuse it to practice something else...

However, maybe you were overtired and that's why you made mistakes. In the begining only knit a couple of hours, and put it down every half hour to walk around and take a break. Practice will improve everything, just don't overdo it.  {{{{hugs}}}}

[croonqueen]

Thanks Sue.  I started over today and am off to a wildly good start with my hat.  So far, it's perfect! 

for now...

[dawn0684]

I feel the exact same way when it comes to crocheting. For the life of me I can't get the tension right. I'll start an afghan and get like 3-4 hours into it and realize the damn thing is crooked .. or it's just 'off' and I don't know why. I totally feel your pain, because you start over the next day after ripping out your work and winding up your yarn ball again, just to get frustrated later that night when you realize your second attempt is going the same way the first one did. I totally understand your pain, I currently have that crooked, lumpy 4 hour afghan under my coffee table because I can't bare rip the stitches and roll the yarn ball up again for the 3rd time.

[croonqueen]

Lol yes, and now I have 'knitters elbow' so I have to take a break for a few days.  Ahhh!

[mrsflibble]

Yep. I feel your pain. the worst is when you're working on a circular needle and realise you made a catastrophic mistake about 4 rows back... then redo it, and manage the SAME FRICKING MISTAKE again.

my tea cosy is finally looking like one though, but it's caused me so much frustration I'm glad it's going to be a gift because I on't think I could bear to look at it lol!

[PenguinSoup]

I did the same thing, but more on purpose. I would knit to learn a new stitch or technique and rip it out if it was wrong at all. It game me lots of practice and I have those techniques down though.

[brookem]

I avoided knitting for 20 years (a grandmother taught me when I was five, I took it up again at 25) because it was so frustrating! one day, I just sorta got it. Now I knit every day and I love it as much as I love sewing, albeit for very different reasons.

While persistence is often necessary for learning a new skill, if you're feeling really frustrated then maybe taking a break might be the thing to do... Maybe not for 20 years, but a few days at least. It might be hard to believe now, but knitting can be really fun. Don't worry, one day it's going to click and in the mean time, know that we've all been where you are now (I'm looking at you, stupid hat I had to frog eight times!)

[mrsflibble]

never try to lean a new stitch or follow a chart while watching TV either.

[missmoppet]

Practice, concentration and patience.  And with the help of some wonderful Craftsters here you can knit anything your put your mind to.  I never thought I would be able to knit and here I am knitting away.  Slowly of course, but knitting away none the less.