Unraveling Monster Thread: What have you unraveled and why?

Dear users, dear authors,
what have you unraveled, and why didn’t you just turn it into a UFO?
Let me know.

The Unraveling Monster has struck me twice during my current project.
The first time, the shape wasn’t right, and the second time, I didn’t like the pattern.

Since I really want to use up this yarn cake, I don’t want it to become a UFO.

And how does the saying go? All good things come in threes.

My current jacket is a prime candidate for unraveling.

I messed up the pattern on the front and had to unravel almost the whole thing.

Yesterday I was close to tears because knitting is still pretty new to me (especially cable and Aran patterns), but I’m so excited about the finished jacket that I kept going today.
Besides, the beautiful yarn is too good to waste—and, to be honest, too expensive—to end up as a UFO in the corner.

Even with tips and help, I’m sure I’ll have to rip out the sleeves again later, but I’ll just have to live with that if I want it to turn out right.

@MEL

Why don’t you lay your sleeves on a similar piece that fits? Or make yourself a paper pattern. That way, you can always check whether your knitted piece fits and maybe save yourself the trouble of unraveling it.

I’ve got an unraveling project like that at the moment too. It only worked on the third attempt. It’s a summer loop scarf. I simply had the wrong yarn twice: once it was too thick, and once too stiff. Now I’ve used a soft sock yarn, and that works.
I like the loop scarf, so it won’t become a UFO.

There’s a bag design lying next to me, waiting for me and my daughters to rip it out. It has three colors, so we’ll need three pairs of hands.
The chart looked better as a drawing, so I changed it and am crocheting it all over again.

Why rip it out? That’s 5 skeins… I can use those again ^^

I don’t think I’ve ever really unraveled much… Except for my “test skein.”

I have a skein of yarn lying around in the living room that I always use to test new patterns…
Once it works out and I’ve started the “real” project, I wind the test skein back up ;)

Other than that, I actually never unravel anything… (Unless I find an unforgivable mistake in the earlier rows.)
Most of the time, I either finish the projects eventually or… (and yes, I’m ashamed to say this now…) if they just really don’t work out, they end up in the trash.
When I unravel something, I usually just create chaos, and I never use that yarn again. (And especially with amigurumi, for example, it’s often not worth it with so many small pieces.)

But maybe I’ll unravel something for the first time soon… I’ve started a shawl, and from row to row I’m having more and more doubts about the pattern… and the yarn… or rather, how they work together…)

Well, I don’t usually unravel things either, but recently, while cleaning up, I found a crocheted lace-pattern scarf I’d started. But since I couldn’t find that pattern anywhere in my records, I had to unravel the scarf after all. Luckily, I hadn’t even finished half of it yet.

And I unraveled a triangular shawl I’d started because I didn’t like the pattern anymore, and I started the shawl over with a new pattern. I hope it doesn’t become another UFO.

I unraveled the crochet hook case halfway through—which, as it turned out, was a waste of time! And yesterday, I unraveled a few rows of my Tunisian crochet project and started over—with more stitches. Unraveling has almost become my trademark; often something isn’t quite right at first (pattern, size…), and then I just pull it all out…

This morning, a rather vicious specimen of the “unraveling monster” species struck me: To prove that I’d learned some new Tunisian patterns, I wanted to take a photo of my dishcloth (crocheted a little more than halfway), and what do I see? A row much farther down that hadn’t been finished according to the pattern — and the star pattern wasn’t ideally placed either, so: out came the hook! Here’s the new piece:
 

Good morning!

I often unravel sections or entire projects because I tend to work by trial and error, and sometimes things just don’t turn out right the first time.
And since I don’t feel like throwing yarn away, I unravel it, wind it up, and start over.
This can be really “tiring,” especially with yarn that contains angora, for example, because you can’t just tug on the thread and have the stitches slip apart—sometimes you really have to untangle the strands stitch by stitch.
But I approach it with a positive attitude, and then it works out ;)
It’s actually very rare that I come across a bit of yarn I really can’t unravel anymore and end up having to throw it away.

Just yesterday I had to unravel one leg because it was bigger than the other three.
Strangely enough, this always happens when I crochet the same pieces on different days. I guess my hand was a little “loose” yesterday.
Everything I crocheted on the same day turned out evenly tight.
Does this happen to you, too?

Not really, dear Nadeleule.

However, I can hardly ever manage to make two socks of the same size—even when I follow the pattern exactly.

Mel, I know what you mean. It happens especially when I’m crocheting—sometimes I start off crocheting more loosely and then get tighter as I go. That’s also a good candidate for unraveling.

It doesn’t happen to me very often, but if I don’t like a pattern combination or the size turns out differently than I expected, I just unravel it again.

Lately, I’ve often felt the same way as Nina. I try something new and then I don’t like it after all. Many of my designs actually come together while I’m knitting or crocheting.

My frogging monster has turned into a UFO.
After a relatively simple pattern refused to work on the third repeat for the umpteenth time, I started a different project.

...I didn’t unravel my shawl after all! :)
I kept going a bit further, and it’s not nearly as bad as I thought :)


But I think I’m going to unravel a store-bought sweater for the first time… Or maybe even two!
In one of them, I pulled a stitch out so badly that I can’t fix it properly anymore, so I don’t wear that sweater anymore.
The other one is so stretched out by now that it looks silly.
We’ll see—maybe I’ll turn one of them into something new :) A bag or something :)

Anything else?

Are there currently no more Ribbelmonster, just UFOs, because it’s UFO Week?

May Projects: UFO Week May 22–June 4, Best of the Leftovers, Yarn Diet / Yarn Emperor,
Saving Wallflowers, all May handicrafts, Learning Something New, Tunisian
crochet

Tina, that’s a great idea—unraveling old sweaters. I hadn’t even thought of that. :-)

I don’t have anything left to unravel; I’m busy with UFOs and current projects right now.

First, I unraveled the Minion egg cup I’d chosen for this month’s leftover project because my sister said she actually wanted the other shade of blue.
It’s for her boyfriend, and he loves those things. But since the cup is so quick to make, he’ll get two right away. Then there’ll be two Minions on the breakfast table.

So, how’s it going?

My little side project is a prime candidate for unraveling because the pattern on “paper” clashes with the one in wool.
Either one or two stitches too few or too many.

A classic case of “theory versus practice.”

My next candidate: a very old UFO that neither suits me nor do I like it!
But it’ll be tedious, since it’s knitted from a mohair blend!

It’s UFO Week:
Maybe there’s something you’ve frogged?
August Projects: UFO Week starting August 27, Saving Wallflowers and Yarn, Best of the Leftovers,
Yarn Diet / Yarn Emperor / Rule Over This Galaxy / Milky Way

I’m currently busy unraveling a dress… I’d crocheted it in panels, always laying them out neatly on a well-fitting linen dress to check the measurements… then I joined the finished pieces together. There was nothing left of the good fit—the weight stretched everything out so much that I just think it looks awful. So I’m currently unraveling about 16 balls of viscose yarn made from sugarcane… or rather, I’m crocheting a new piece directly from the old one. It would be such a waste to just toss this great yarn into the corner now. The next piece will be shorter—just a tunic. That way, it won’t get too heavy… and this time I’m using a 2.5 hook instead of a 3, so it’ll be more compact. Actually, I unravel everything that doesn’t turn out the way I imagine it… it just sits around as a UFO until I decide whether to finish it or am sure I don’t want it.

I had to partially unravel my first waffle-pattern dishcloth twice: First, the size wasn’t right, then I suddenly realized I’d crocheted the post double crochets on the wrong side—I’d mixed up the right side and wrong side rows! (That’s what happens when you crochet on the train and look out the window every now and then!) It’s been with a coworker for a week now; the second one was made without any problems while traveling in Germany. 

I had to completely unravel the sweater I started crocheting over the weekend because I realized the yarn felt too tight when crocheted. So I unraveled 200g and will be knitting the sweater soon. 

How did it go?
September Projects: UFO Week, Leftover Favorites, the Popular Title Highlights, plus Shopping Queen

In the meantime, I’ve unraveled my current project because I couldn’t remember how to continue.
I’d forgotten to write down the relevant row right away.

I had to unravel a large section of the vest for my husband twice because I’d forgotten to work in the buttonholes.

The other time, in my eagerness, I’d knitted much too far and forgotten to shape the armholes.

Well ... all in all, I probably knitted 1 1/2 skeins twice over.