Unraveling: Why do you unravel your projects?

Dear Community,
What are your reasons for unraveling crochet and knitting projects?

Either because I made a mistake and it’s too noticeable,
or because I don’t like it (anymore).

I’ve never unraveled a whole project, but I do it every now and then because I tend to miscount.

I sometimes unravel the swatch if I’m running low on yarn.

 

I unravel when I’m not happy with what I’ve knitted, whether it’s because of the pattern or simply because I’ve changed my mind. I also unravel when I spot a mistake that needs to be fixed, because otherwise I’ll keep noticing it instead of the rest of the knitted piece.



Best regards, Inge
 

Unraveling: As rarely as possible, because it doesn’t make the yarn any better.
Many mistakes can be corrected without unraveling.
Missing yarn overs in a lace pattern, for example, can still be worked in using the cross thread even two rows later.
With incorrectly crossed cables, the correct strand is behind the wrong one. Carefully cut open the wrong strand, bring the upper and lower stitch loops behind the correct strand, and join them there with a new yarn end using duplicate stitch.
If you really have to rip out the work because the piece has turned out too tight or too loose: Be sure to measure the gauge on the part you’ve already knitted and recalculate the stitches and rows based on that, so your next attempt won’t have to be ripped out again.
For those who enjoy unraveling: Take all your knitted items out of the closet and try them on. What fits goes back in the closet. What doesn’t fit (anymore) goes into the “unraveling pile” and will be unraveled over the next few evenings. Then you can make something new and better out of it.

 

I grew up in the GDR, and back then there wasn’t much “beautiful, special” yarn. That’s why I’d occasionally wander through secondhand fabric stores, on the lookout for knitwear made from beautiful yarns. I often found something—I can still remember those yarns to this day. The styles and patterns weren’t really my thing, but my trained eye could tell right away that I could unravel the piece and knit something stylish out of it.

Best regards, Ina

I’m sure every knitter or crocheter has unravelled a project at some point—and I’m no exception. Sometimes it was a sweater I couldn’t or didn’t want to wear, other times a scarf or a shawl. I once unraveled a cardigan all the way down to just below the sleeves—it was a raglan style, knitted in stockinette stitch from the top down to where the sleeves were set in, and then the pattern began. Unfortunately, I’d chosen a pattern that shrunk a lot—so the cardigan ended up being much too tight around the body. After unraveling it, I knitted a different pattern, and now I wear the cardigan all the time.