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hillstreetmama
Permanent Resident
USA
3448 Posts |
 Posted - 06/05/2008 : 3:23:08 PM
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What have you knit that turned out to be a big waste of your time...not to mention your hard-earned money?
Mine was a bag kit that I splurged on. I won't tell you the price, but it was more than $50. Two kinds of yarn that didn't felt the same, odd decreases at the top of the bag that made the opening too small (in my opinion), and just overall a disappointment. The straps and bottom barely felted which gives the bag a flared bottom. I can't even frog it and reuse the yarn! I've stayed away from a lot of felting because I was afraid something like this might happen. This bag is going in the trash - there is no saving it. What a waste!
So 'fess up! Tell me your stories.
Jan
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yarnlover
Permanent Resident
1729 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 3:36:46 PM
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I found some bumpy cream cotton yarn, many years ago, and thought it was yummy. Designed a sweater, even included intarsia - tulips in purple with green stems and leaves - in ribbon yard, for the front panel. That part turned out ok, but once the sweater was finished and I tried it on - omigod, how ugly. It wasn't the knitting, the sweater looked pretty good on the hanger.
Really, the style was all wrong for me, but I thought maybe my Mother would like it. Same reaction when she tried it on.
I ended up unraveling the whole thing and eventually some of the yarn became a poncho for my niece. The rest is somewhere in my stash. I discovered that I really don't like knitting with cotton yarn. Maybe it is much better than it was all those years ago, but I'm not going near it.
BTW, you could use that bag for things like holding plastic grocery bags, extra bars of soap, balls of yarn. Anything around the house. Just because it isn't what you might want to carry out of the house, you might find a good use for it anyway.
See My Stuff: Here
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fiberlicious
Permanent Resident
1637 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 4:40:22 PM
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| It was a sweater that a friend crocheted for me. She was an accomplished crocheter, so I thought she knew what she was doing. I first bought the requisite amount of yarn. Then, she kept telling me she'd run out and needed more. I wound up buying twice the amount of yarn the pattern called for. The sweater turnout out tiny and bullet-proof - apparently, the yarn was bigger than the pattern called for, but she didn't upsize the hook to compensate. It's still waiting to be frogged, but since it's crochet and multi colors, it will be a lot of small balls. |
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SR5Rfan
Permanent Resident
USA
1232 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 5:44:14 PM
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I guess most of what I knit would be considered a waste of time and money, since I've done a lot of scarves and don't wear them...but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to donate them at some point and usually only knit for the fun of it, not for the finished project.
Beth
http://sr5rfan.blogspot.com/ Not much knitting on it, but it's a start ...
"I was taught to respect my elders, but it is getting harder and harder to find one"
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Solaris
Permanent Resident
Canada
4156 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 6:00:17 PM
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Most of the knitted gifts I made 2 years ago for Christmas. As it turns out, the recipients did not assign ANY value to hand made knitted items.
I swear that the hats and scarves I made weren't totally ugly - really. I mean, these people wear uglier things every day.... I mean... well... too bad they didn't like my gifts. A big waste of my money and time - that's for sure. Sigh...
________________________________________________
Let's be kind to one another.
My Ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/people/solaris
Blog: http://solaris-eaglefeathers.blogspot.com/ |
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kbshee
Permanent Resident
USA
4130 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 6:28:39 PM
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I did a fair isle sleeved sweater from VK, and didn't check gauge. It could now fit me wearing a backpack...under the sweater.
Not a huge money waste since I used cotton-ease, but a huge time waste. Live and learn...I always swatch now.
kim in oregon
http://kbshee.blogspot.com |
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fiddlerbird555
Permanent Resident
USA
1429 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 6:32:37 PM
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Sadly, I think the 100% wool socks. "Washable" is apparently not the same as superwash, and I really don't have time for cosseting kids' finished objects. I did immortalize them on the web, though.
Or the scarf that turned into a neckwarmer, leaving me with 2/3 of the yarn I bought for it. It's nice yarn, though, and might make a matching set of mittens, someday.
Or the sockotta yarn that commited suicide by jumping out of the car.
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I can go loopy, or I can knit. Your choice. |
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likestoknittoo
Warming Up
86 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 8:09:58 PM
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| Mine was a sweater made with a 100% merino wool in a cream color. The yarn was called "Baruffa", it was full of knots, and would split constantly. I paid well over $50.00 for the yarn, never mind the time spent knitting it. |
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beedee
Seriously Hooked
USA
705 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 10:15:02 PM
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| A deliberately great big, oversize-around-the-belly, shaggy mohair sweater that I started early in my pregnancy. I was hoping to finish it in early spring. Come July, I finished it -- fugedaboudit! Baby was delivered on a 108-degree day! |
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lucienh
Honorary Angel
919 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 04:57:59 AM
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The sweater I made my husband with my own cable placement and choice of background stitch, closest I ever came to designing a pattern. Only two problems: I screwed up the cables right over his nipples so that it looked weird -- and I didn't notice until I'd sewed the sweater together and he tried it on for the first time. He said never mind, he loved it, and wore it for a week. At which point I realized why you don't make cabled sweaters out of alpaca. Fuzzing and pilling. It's a mess. Worst of all -- DH still loves it and plans to start wearing it constantly as soon as the weather cools down.
New blog, not about knitting, but I bet it keeps sneaking in: http://greenbananascancerblog.blogspot.com/ |
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Chemcats
Permanent Resident
3337 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 05:05:21 AM
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<hanging head in shame> Don't tell anyone! 14 balls of Patons Devine. Need I say more?
Meribeth |
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PBELKNAP
Permanent Resident
USA
1127 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 05:24:08 AM
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One thing stands out sharply in my mind -- the Lion Brand pattern for the "Flattering Jacket" using their Homespun yarn. For those of you familiar with Lion Brand Homespun yarn, you know what a nightmare it is to work with. Back then, I was a beginning crocheter and was all excited to make myself a jacket I could wear to work that would keep me nice and warm. Because it was a crochet project, it required a boatload of yarn, which was a lot of $$$.
I slaved away on this thing for 2 months. When I got all done I discovered two things: a) Because of the nature of Homespun, the entire jacket STRETCHED like crazy, to the point where it drags down almost to my knees, and b) due to an error in the pattern (always double-check Lion Brand patterns for errata/corrections), the jacket doesn't join completely in the front, rendering it useless for keeping anyone warm.
Homespun...Never agin.
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PAM
WIP = Scrap Sweater (knit), Aran Stitch Afghan (crochet), Easy Playtime Set (knit)
Done this year = Scrap Scarf (knit), Gloves (knit), Mittens (knit), Afghan (crochet), Pinwheel Afghan (crochet), Knit Your Bit Scarf for the WWII Museum (knit - charity)
If I could only do this for a living... |
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Atavistic
Permanent Resident
6604 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 05:59:24 AM
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My biggest, waste of time, money, and space was spending all that money and poor quality yarn just because it was on sale.
Hoarding, pack rat tendencies, retail therapy--bad, bad, bad idea.
Hand and foot when harmonized forms martialism/but Military and literary when harmonized is art and this brings/philosophy. (Lee, Chang Hoo) |
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purlthis
Permanent Resident
USA
2715 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 06:04:34 AM
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My niece's Christmas poncho in Patons Harmony. Biased like an SOB on crack. Needless to say, she got a doll stroller.
Rachel
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As I get older, I prefer to knit. Tracey Ullman
http://purledthis.blogspot.com/ UPDATED! WITH PICS! |
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hissyknit
Permanent Resident
USA
1349 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 06:10:26 AM
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I made a bunch of scarves when I first started knitting for the local foster care emergency shelter and dropped them off. A couple of months later, I returned to shelter with more scarves. An employee was using one of the handknit scarves I did as a dust cloth.
I asked her why she was using an obvious scarf as a dust cloth. She replied that someone dropped off a bunch of scarves from get this...Walmart...and the director thought the kids would like the Wallyworld scarves better so the handknit ones were "recycled".
Needless to say, I didn't drop off anymore there. All the scarves go to my church's thrift store box. At least maybe they'll make a profit on them.
Christy B.
"I run with scissors and eat paste."
http://hissyknit.blogspot.com/ |
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PBELKNAP
Permanent Resident
USA
1127 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 07:27:31 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by hissyknit
I made a bunch of scarves when I first started knitting for the local foster care emergency shelter and dropped them off. A couple of months later, I returned to shelter with more scarves. An employee was using one of the handknit scarves I did as a dust cloth.
I asked her why she was using an obvious scarf as a dust cloth. She replied that someone dropped off a bunch of scarves from get this...Walmart...and the director thought the kids would like the Wallyworld scarves better so the handknit ones were "recycled".
OH MY GOD!!!
That has to be, hands down, the most horrible thing I've ever heard!!!
How can people be so ignorant???
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PAM
WIP = Scrap Sweater (knit), Aran Stitch Afghan (crochet), Easy Playtime Set (knit)
Done this year = Scrap Scarf (knit), Gloves (knit), Mittens (knit), Afghan (crochet), Pinwheel Afghan (crochet), Knit Your Bit Scarf for the WWII Museum (knit - charity)
If I could only do this for a living... |
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fiddlerbird555
Permanent Resident
USA
1429 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 07:45:48 AM
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Then of course, there was the very simple poncho pattern -- completely done in half-double crochet. Trouble is, the rows got longer, and longer, and longer, so I seem unable to get it beyond collar length. Well, at least it was cheap acrylic yarn.
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I can go loopy, or I can knit. Your choice. |
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amazing grace
Chatty Knitter
107 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 12:41:58 PM
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| I made a shrug from Lion's Brand Moonlight Mohair. It's pretty to look at, but itchy to wear and I feel like it's screaming "Look at her boobs!" when I have it on. We're just not compatible. |
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lella
Permanent Resident
9697 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 1:02:04 PM
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Mine is also a felted bag story but the yarn was actually free, from a friend who is a weaver. It tested out to be woolen.
I knit away on the monster until it was huge. Then I tried to felt it-in the stove top, cooking and plunging it alternately into boiling and ice water. Thrumbing it round and round a dozen times, with kettles of boiling water into the washer, drying on "fry" setting in the dryer.
All told there were four weeks knitting it, and the time trying to felt it, and the trips to the laundromat for bigger, tougher machines to wrench those little fibers in tightly to each other. Probably, with drying in the hotter than the hobs of Hades laundromat dryer that shrunk just about anything from jeans to bath mats, it cost at least $10 bucks to get a stupid looking red bag I will probably end up fitting with a foam cushion to use as a dog bed. The weeks of knitting I cannot quantify.
Zippiknits
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hillstreetmama
Permanent Resident
USA
3448 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 2:20:28 PM
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fiddlerbird...I have to know - was the sockotta an assisted suicide?
Jan
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KathyR
Permanent Resident
New Zealand
2969 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 4:32:31 PM
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Several years ago I knit a jersey in a very prettily variegated mohair. Unfortunately I am not 10' tall and willowy. Perhaps if I was, the jersey would have suited me even when it grew until it reached my knees. Then there was the jersey I knitted from my own handspun. The wool was free, as was the pattern, so only my time was involved. I worked so hard spinning the yarn and knitting up this lovely jersey only to find it looked absolutely hideous on me! Wrong colour and definitely wrong style. It is still waiting for me to frog it, dye it and reknit it.
KathyR
If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.
My Blog
http://www.flickr.com/groups/kr_members/ (Roselea Fibres) |
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Your biggest waste of time and money?
