BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Crochet My poor grandmother

I've probably mentioned this before, but I live next door to my grandmother. Well, she came over a week ago because of a problem she was having with a pineapple doily. She was on round 29 (this thing was HUGE) and starting the pineapples. She wasn't getting the correct amount of loops. So I get the pattern and the project and look it over. I thought she was going to have heart failure when I told her she'd messed up on rnd 3!

So, being the ever patient person she is, she ripped it out and started over again. Last night, she came back over with another problem. She was on rnd 25, and it was rippling (or ruffling-however you say it). Again, she had to rip. All the way back to rnd 5. <img src="/images/graemlins/wall.gif" alt="" /> I told her that I'd just forget about it. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> She said she really liked the pattern, and wanted to do it. She's a much more determined individual than I am, let me tell you! What would you guys do? Would you plug on or call it quits? I'm sure we've all had our fair share of frogging. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I sometimes can cut and fix up a mistake , but if it messed up every row after that well Ripit Ripit Ripit, is the only way to go.
I often make some pattern and then deside , what am I going to do with this and who wants it. I like to try the stitches but can't use the thing, so I ask Rich E Pooh to ripit, he loves doing that.

Mother Hen

Unfortunately, my gram's a perfectionist. If I couldn't fudge it, I'd forget it. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm with your grandmother. Rip it and do it until it comes out right. I am someone who will not admit defeat and I will not be defeated by a pattern, thread and a hook. Chances are when I finished that doiley then I would make another one right after finishing it just to prove to myself that I could get it right the first time. If I didn't I'd always be thinking about that doiley that I couldn't do.
Grace

Amen to ripping it out and doing it right. I am a perfectionist who is trying to "loosen up", but when it comes to any craft I do, it has to be perfect - or as perfect as our humanness will let it be. It may take a little longer but it looks nicer in the long run.

i'll rip. but if its way down in the pattern and doesn't change the look, or make the item "wonky", i'll leave it. like for an afghan that has 200 rows, and on row 199 i find a mistake on row 4. not happening, it will stay that way. wasn't it the shakers or amish that would purposely insert one mistake in every quilt to make it "unique" ? i've heard that somewhere.

Ah, we've all been there! Funny how sometimes the "mistake" is not noticable until you get way far into it.

Besides counting, I double-check each row after it is completed to make sure it is right.

Even doing this, every once in a while I find a mistake, usually on the following row...

It helps to have no distractions! As if! LOL

Actually, Butterfly, I'm not sure where that comes from. I believe I've heard references to it back in medieval times (tapestries). I know the Indians (in India) do it with their rugs. Supposedly, if an item is perfect it brings bad luck. Like you're asking for trouble or something. Anyway, if I mess up and nobody would ever notice, this is the theory I fall back on <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. If it's terrible (like ruffling or big holes or something), yeah I'll rip it. But if I'm almost done, and it looks ok (just not like the picture), I call it a "design original".

Samantha,

I have heard the exact same thing. The Gods are the only ones taht are perfect and it highly dis pleases them if a mere mortal shows perfection also. (something like that) and let me tell ya , I have been pleasing the Gods for years , hahahahahahahaha.

I am a fifth generation quaker and it was the Shaker quakers who 'signed' their work with what appeared to be a mistake. I guess I could claim my mistakes were actually my 'mark' but it ain't so..........

CrescentMoon