It’s great to mess up, and I always encourage my students to do so as much as possible, for one or more of the reasons below.

This fun list is just meant to give you ten reasons to relax and try something new, and hopefully, you’ll mess up!

Counting down from #10…

#10 – Pain Fades With Practice

You need to get used to the feeling of messing up. The more you do it, the less painful it becomes. What was once a heart-stopping tragedy become just another mistake, just something that needs to be fixed, or not, as you see fit.

#9 – You Gain Self-Awareness

Usually, when you make a mistake, you learn that you didn’t know how to do something that you thought you did. This gives you the opportunity to refine your knitting.

#8 – You Become More Helpful

It’s so nice to be able to help a friend when she makes the same mistake you did. You can now reassure her that it’s great to mess up, oh, and here’s how to fix that.

#7 – You’re More Fun

In a knitting group, or a class, you become more fun to be around when you are okay with making mistakes. It helps everyone relax and enjoy themselves more. Sometimes people just need to be reminded that it’s not the end of the world.

#6 – You Make Friends

You can quickly make friends with people in your knitting group by asking them for help when you get stuck. And with this goes the corollary #5…

#5 – You Gain Resource-Awareness

The more you ask, the more you learn who you can and can’t go to for reliable knitting help.

There will often be people delighted to help you – the gems are the ones who will show you where you went wrong and how to fix it yourself. This doesn’t apply to just people, either.

Knitting resources of all kinds – books, videos, and websites, need to be explored so you can find what kind of help works for you.

#4 – You Make Better Choices

When you mess up, you learn what knitting situations are challenging for you, and you learn to avoid them in the future. A good example of this is finding out that it’s a bad idea to start a new lace project at knit- night.

Painful yes, but a worthwhile lesson, and one better learned sooner rather than right before Christmas.

#3 – You Taste Enlightenment

Sometimes you get to practice the ancient Buddhist art of non-attachment – of letting go – that comes with an entire project that is ruined.

This skill serves us well in life, as the things we love change and go away, or get lost, stolen, or broken.

The knowledge that we loved the thing while it was ours but that we are powerful enough to let it go is one of the beautiful rewards that messing up terribly brings into our lives, if we are willing to experience it.

#2 – You Become Fearless

When you become less afraid of messing up, you will boldly attempt new patterns and techniques. You’ll make things you never thought possible, because the fear of messing up won’t stop you trying.

#1 – You Attain Superstardom

The #1 reason why it’s great to make mistakes is that eventually, through making and learning how to fix all the knitting mistakes in the universe, you learn all the ins and outs of knitting, and you become a Knitting Superstar!!

So we’ve established unequivocally that it’s great to make mistakes. But I would be leaving you high and try if I didn’t show you what to do next!

Refer to the videos in the next section any time you get stuck, and I’ll help you through the most common knitting mistakes.