reactions to unravels

[NanaM3]

Several times last week I found I had made a minor mistake in my thread piece and unraveled my work back to that point.

 

I got a kick out of the reaction by those who were looking on, especially my grown sons, who were aghast that I was undoing all that work. But my carpenter son just nodded. He's one who will rip out an entire day's construction if it doesn't line up perfectly.

 

My teenage daughter saw me do this twice (I've been way distracted this past week!!!!) and hopefully she's rec'd the work-ethic of "if it's worth doing it's worth doing right"

 

what reactions have you seen when you've unraveled a WIP in public?

[LittleJadeFrog]

I don't do much in public but at home....I have been known to rip out a few or more rows! It starts with a grunt (or curse if the situation fits) then rip, rip, RIP!!!! DH just sits there and watches. He used to say "you don't HAVE to take it out, do you???" Dagger stares while I ripped it out made him stop trying to comfort me. So I sit silently and frog while he sits silently and watches!

[crazycrochet]

I always get, OH my gosh, what are you doing? I say, there was a mistake and it needs to be fixed. The person may not see the mistake, but it is a flashing beacon to me and my eyes are drawn right to it. I usually notice something about 5-20 rows from where I am working at the moment.

[shelly_bean]

dh is the same way of you don't have to do you..like with my blanket. luckily i could really only go one row up because of the way the stitches lined up. I couldn't make it work if I tried to fudge it. But I really hate when you have to do 5-10 rows down.. most people are like it looked fine to me..

[Feederofthepack]

I always get "no one will notice but you, why tear it all out?"

[Crocus58]

My dh has learned not to try to comfort me as I frog - - he just watches me silently, does not say a word. When I'm done re-winding the thread (or yarn) he kisses my forehead and gets me a chocolate.

[pryor208]

Honestly I've left a few plain ole' double crochet baby blankets with a skipped stitch in the middle somewhere since they're just Red Heart SS yarn, but if it is something with a fancier pattern of stitches then you can't get much further without having a problem making everything line up. I'd rip it out if it mattered, but otherwise I go with the Amish and their purposely putting a mistake in each quilt idea, except mine are pure accident.

[Aelita]

I've had people tell me "why are you taking it apart?" and I'll tell them b/c it's a mistake and they're like, "after all that work you're going to take it apart?"

and I'm like yes.

[Peggy85225]

My son and husband are used to it my daughter finds the sight and the sound of frogging painful. But like others if there is an error and I know it I can very rarely leave it I must correct it. I've given up trying to leave it and go on as I always wind up going back and correcting it

[pretty_bug01]

I get, "there goes ____ hours of your time gone." That is so not helpful.

[antara]

I lived with my grandparents during college. I would sit in the living room with them and crochet, and a few times when I had to rip something out, they would look at me in surprise and say something like, "Why are you undoing all that work?"

 

On another note, my grandmother (who neither crochets nor knits) now knows what it means to "frog" something.

[shelly_bean]

oh yeah the old how are you going to waste all those hours of work you just put in.. Yeah because I really want to go back and redo it all. One thing that I don't like is when I don't notice a mistake till after I say changed color or finished off. that irritates me to no end because I have never been able to make it work after that so I usually just have to leave it and be upset the whole time.

[eebrs]

My kids (4 and 1 1/2) actually get excited when I have to frog something. I hold the completed part and they pull the loose end until I say stop. There's giggling and happy faces as the yarn gets spread all over the living room! When we're done, they always ask if there's any more to frog!

[ladyinrags]

I do a lot of frogging when I'm starting a new pattern/project, but I also will tear apart half an afghan if I see a mistake big enough. I had one friend look at his wife and say, "Crocheting seems to involve as much undoing as doing". For me, it sure does.

[Addey]

Most of the time I don't get any response. DH doesn't say anything, he understands it'll bug me if I don't fix it. In public I've gotten "with any luck you'll have that all put back by the time the plane leaves" (I was in the airport, waiting to board a plane and had to frog about 6 or 8 rows on an afghan). I've also gotten the shocked "Why are you ripping all that out?!" (I had started something, but decided to make something else with the yarn, so I wasn't fixing a mistake in a pattern, but in pattern choice.... they seemed to understand that. I was also only a few rows in anyhow...)

[Ellie 13]

My dh has learned not to try to comfort me as I frog - - he just watches me silently, does not say a word. When I'm done re-winding the thread (or yarn) he kisses my forehead and gets me a chocolate.

 

I wish I had someone to give me chocolate everytime I frogged something. I've only frogged once or twice in public, but nobody said anything. People always ask what I'm making, or just stare.

Ellie 13

[CrochetDad]

Sometimes my wife will say "No one but you will notice the error" or similar.

 

Once I was making a hat for my grandson (while he watched). I spotted an error a couple of rows back (not that far on a hat) and he said "No, Grandpa! It's OK. Don't rip it out."

 

Members of my immediate family (including my dear wife) usually just sigh and let it go at that when I start ripping.

[morrigan1974]

Teehee....my DH & DS just kind of ignore me, or ask the obvious "Taking it apart?" (Grrr! LOL)

 

But when I was at my Dad's house for my mother's funeral, my paternal grandmother was watching me crochet. I had found the last of the yarn from the afghan my mom had finished for my son just 2 weeks before she passed away and was trying a rib-stitch. After about a 1/2 hour, I decided I didn't like it. I wasn't making anything, just keeping my hands occupied, but oh my, did she react! "Would you LOOK at that?!?! Here she's been working on that all this time and she just took it apart!"

 

So naturally, I had to explain to everyone in the room (who otherwise would not have noticed!!) that I wasn't ripping apart anything, I was "fidgeting"! LOL

[FancyFingers]

I'm not sure I ever pay attention to comments/reactions while I frog, since I'm generally focused on making sure I don't go too far back! I try to count after each row, especially on big projects, so I don't usually have to go back far.

BUT I recently made an entire round ripple, and didn't notice until I folded it that it had 11 points instead of 12! It looks fine, though, so it's staying!

[cgd]

I don't usually get many comments. If DH or DS say anything I'll just calmly tell them that I made a mistake and am fixing it. I might not always be so calm, but after I decide it's worth it to rip it, I have to do it. It's not a waste of time if you're correcting something. Now knitting on the other hand, I can get pretty steamed because it's so hard for me to correct dropped stitches and other messups. This is why I don't knit much!

[cherishedc]

My dh has learned not to try to comfort me as I frog - - he just watches me silently, does not say a word. When I'm done re-winding the thread (or yarn) he kisses my forehead and gets me a chocolate.

 

Now this is a good man!!!

[~Kel~]

I've become very conciencious as I work bc I hate to frog things so I'm usually only a few stitches away but if it's more than a row I tend to say something inappropriate and start ripping at which point DH who has been paying no attention to me whatsoever says "what's wrong"

[NanaM3]

My dh has learned not to try to comfort me as I frog - - he just watches me silently, does not say a word. When I'm done re-winding the thread (or yarn) he kisses my forehead and gets me a chocolate.

 

 

does he have a brother my age?!

[OzRebel]

I have had to frog so many times that I'm fairly obsessive about counting at the end of rows to make sure all is well if it's a bigger piece... which does annoy me to no end, but is ultimately worth it in the end I've found. Sometimes I question myself as to why I had to become obsessed with this particular craft!

[Crocus58]

does he have a brother my age?!

 

Sorry, his brother is married also

 

Now his father is a widower . . . . . (that's where my dh learned how to treat a crocheter . . .)