Knitting Confessions: Knitters Share Their Dark Secrets

Several months ago, I stumbled upon a list of “knitting confessions” at a message forum at Knitter’s Review. I read the thread and was very entertained. I also started to feel a little less “alone” in some of the things that I did in my knitting life. Do you ever feel that way about knitting? Do you ever find yourself with a secret shame because you do things in knitting that you know you’re not “supposed” to do? Do you hate certain things in knitting that most everyone you know loves? Do you love certain things that most everyone you know hates? When I first read the Knitter’s Review thread, I rushed to Facebook and asked the group there if they had any knitting confessions of their own. Then, I promptly forgot about it. Today while looking over Facebook, I rediscovered the post and its responses, and I thought I would reprint them here. Names are left off because I want everyone to feel they’re not alone!

Knitting Confessions from the Knitting for Charity Facebook Page

I’ll start with my own, because some of the responses reference my own shared confessions. *I almost never swatch. Usually I start a pattern, measure or eyeball it to see if it will fit from where I’m knitting, and if not I undo and reknit. Obviously, for this reason I never wash my “swatch” either. *On the rare occasions I do swatch, I never wash or block it. *I don’t like straight needles or DPNs. I knit as much as I can on circular needles, mostly because I can’t lose one half of them! *I incessantly collect patterns that I love, either by queueing on Ravelry or by pinning to my Pinterest board. But I hardly ever knit from these. Instead, because I so often knit on commission, I wind up knitting whatever the person who’s commissioning me requests. As a result, I’ll probably never knit all the patterns I’ve saved. Sigh! *I have definitely accumulated more yarn than I will ever knit, mostly because of the above issue with commissions. Most of the time I have to buy more yarn for a commission. *Before I take any kind of trip (at least 30 minutes long) in which I don’t have to drive, I try to find a project to work on. If nothing I’m currently knitting travels well, I’ll start a new project! *I’ve made a vow to myself numerous times that on Sundays, I’ll knit only for charity. I have broken this vow more times than I care to admit. This is often because I’m a) knitting a gift, b) knitting a project for some other time-sensitive reason, or worst of all, c) knitting a project I’m enjoying way too much to set aside for charity knitting. (How awful!) Now, for others’ confessions: * I’ll share your deep dark secret of collecting patterns and always fall back on my old comfy reliable ones! And I can’t have just one or 2 WIPs going… has to be at least 5 or 6! * I love knitting, and it’s so much fun – but I do get bored anyway! So I always have more than one project of different sizes & styles/complexity going on at once. * I never swatch also. And I will have to live to 120+ in order to use up my stash which will never be totally gone since I cannot help buying more whenever I see yarn for purchase! * I use to have lots of WIPs and patterns, but had to clean out closet, I tossed out all loose copies and just kept books, it was looking like an episode of “Hoarders.” * My biggest confession is that I HATE knitting or crocheting things that come in pairs, or anything that requires multiples of the same pattern. I usually deviate from patterns at least a little, and don’t write it down. Or my tension ends up being wayyy different one item to the next. I always nod and smile when people ask me for things like socks or leg warmers, while cringing on the inside. * My confession: I’m afraid to make something for someone else. I’ve made a bunch of scarves and shawls, but I don’t think any one of them is good enough to give to someone else. So there you have it: a collection of our deep, dark knitting confessions. Do you have anything you’d like to get off your chest?