Lessons from Crochet – Rip it up and start again

duffleI knew it wasn’t right. Nearly three quarter of the way through I still persisted on adding a few rows. I checked, double checked and the sinking feeling that I had made a mistake was becoming more permanent.  Now my friends, here comes the moment of decision – deadline versus perfection. Can you imagine a large clock ticking away. When you know something is not right, when you know you will regret not putting it right – that it could be better – you could make it better. The answer my friends is to rip it up or in this case ‘back’ and start again.

Now they say that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. I disagree. In fact perhaps one of the tragedies of modern life and more modern analysis is that we all get pigeon holed. I am not a perfectionist, but I am a finisher. When it comes to crochet and knitting I learnt a new trick, a new discipline. I think in a small way it has infiltrated other parts of my life.  I once read sage advice from the great American knitwear designer, Jared Flood on his blog Brooklyn Tweed. He said, (and I am paraphrasing now), if you know there is a mistake in your work, rip it back, you will know it is always there and for all the effort, time and care you have put into the garment it is better to right the wrong when you can.

Since then I have stuck to this ideal in my design work. You see I am not a perfectionist, but I can’t stand by if I know I have done a shoddy job. I do make mistakes, but when others rely on my designs and I know I could do better, surely I should try.

Today was a race against time, but I knew the hood on a small duffle coat was not right. I could see how I could easily make it better, what I should have done. Big B gasped in horror as I began to dramatically rip back an hour of hard labour. But when the hood was finished for a second time, it was so much better. The sense of satisfaction was greater and that niggling ‘not quite right’ feeling was gone. I might be a finisher, but why not borrow from the perfectionist just once in a while and have the best of both worlds. If a job is worth doing…..