Letting go of Perfection

Our Knit-Along group had their final class last night and they’ve made so much progress. I’m incredibly proud of this troop of new sweater knitters. They’ve stretched themselves to try something unfamiliar, learn fresh techniques and expand their toolkit. But this has been a struggle for some. 
 
I’ve heard people worry about being short a stitch, that they aren’t getting the length right, that their stitches are uneven. If you watched my Instagram Live video this week, you saw me admit to making mistakes myself. (I failed to follow my own pattern.)
 
So I’m here to remind you of something:
 
IT’S OK IF IT’S NOT PERFECT.

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I know we all want that flawless sweater like we see from Thea Coleman or Andrea Mowry on Ravelry. We want to get it right the first time, and never have to rip back. But this is the real world. We all have scars and flaws. We learn as we go. When we stumble and get it wrong, in knitting, or relationships or at work, we step back, assess our mistake, and try again to get it right.

How do we do that?

1. Identify the issue.You know your project doesn’t look right. Maybe you have the wrong number of stitches. Maybe your eyelets don’t line up right. Did you miss an increase? Are you dropping a yarn over? What caused the problem?
2. Assess. Can this be fixed further into the project? Is it even noticeable? Which is worse: leaving the mistake or undoing hours of work?
3. Make a plan.Your plan could be to ignore it and pretend it’s not there. That’s cool. If you’re going to fix it in the next stage, make a note on your pattern so you don’t forget the plan (like I did). If you’re going to rip back and do-over, how are you going to do that? Where do you rip back to? How do you keep from dropping more stitches than you meant to? How do you keep from repeating the mistake?

(Pro-tip: this is pretty applicable to the rest of life, too.)

And you know what? People will find flaws in you on their own. You don’t need to help them along by pointing them out. When someone compliments your knitting, smile and say, “thank you.” Take the compliment with grace. They don’t need to see that one spot with the wonky stripe or the missed yarn over. You worked REALLY HARD on that; you deserve positive feedback. A compliment is a gift, and turning down a gift is an insult.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.”
​– George Will

Besides. Blocking covers a lot of sins. Block that ish.