We got our very first craftfail submission via the new form! Yay!

From: Amy T.
Subject: FAILFELT

Message Body:
Long, long ago, I bought neon pink and neon green yarn thinking, “This will make a great robot hat!”  Several months later when I had finally finished all necessary knitting projects before I could devote time to it, I decided instead to make it a skull and crossbones hat.  The pattern was a mish-mash between the pattern for the felted “God Save the Queen” hat in “Pretty in Punk” and the skull and crossbones fair isle pattern featured in “Son of Stitch ‘n Bitch”.  I had successfully knit and felted two hats previously using the same kind of yarn with the “God Save the Queen” hat as a basis, so of course this one would be no problem at all, right?  Wrong.  I’m no good at fair isle and my first attempt at knitting it was too small to even fit on my head prior to felting.  So I frogged and started again.  I thought I had something and instead of doing the logical cautious move of felting by hand, I machine-felted (the method I had successfully used with two other hats).  The results were a hat that no human could wear.  Hopefully neon skully hat mk III will be a success.

Now, I must just say right up front that I am not the most skilled knitter in the world.  Having taught myself to knit from books, I could be that I was left behind in my training.  But I persist, and it seems to me that I’m  starting to get it right.

As part of my personal thrifty-craft initiative I watch for good quality left-over yarn at thrift stores–and what better way to promote thrifty knitting than to work in a small scale?  Takes less yarn, less time, and the agony of failure is exponentially smaller, right?  Why not a pair of tiny mittens to use as Christmas ornaments?  And I could take a stab at knitting from a chart for the first time.

I combined a couple of patterns and started off.  One success lead to another, and I had a pair.  Cute, huh?  Oh, wait—there seems to be a certain problem.  Apparently, experienced knitters reverse the pattern!

How to make things right—a gift for half a monkey? Two one-armed dollies?  I know what they say about dancers with two left feet, what about knitters with two left hands?  Dang.  I  think there’s enough yarn left to make it right this time.  All that’s left to do is start again.  Right after I finish the other  two mittens I’ll have two pairs, because two rights don’t make a . . .

Well, anyway.  Back to the needles.

-WendyW

I actually made these and had them listed on one of my shops.  They are supposed to be coin purses.  Both are lined and both have Velcro closures.  Only a mother could love something this ugly.  They didn’t sell, gee, I wonder why?  I had a garage sale and I couldn’t even give them away.  See the price tags.  When I get done with this, they are in the trash.  Don’t ya just love a bargain!

By Notagirlymom

Ok, so there are several fails here.
First off is Louie Lobster, which I made because I couldn’t think of anything ELSE to do with that hideous hot pink acrylic yarn I bought because it was cheap. I didn’t notice until afterwards that his tail was put together wrong (it was knit in 5 pieces and then sewn together). I also didn’t notice until it was too late that one claw looks rather wonky and was put on backwards. D: Wah.

Then Monday..I decided I just HAD to learn to crochet. Except there’s nobody to teach me except my good buddy Youtube. Compounding this little problem is the fact that I’m left handed which always makes things that much more complicated.

And last but not least is that shiny purple fun fur I couldn’t resist because it had been marked down from $4.99 to 71 cents. I had oogled it before but always passed it up because of the price. At 71 cents though, I couldn’t resist.

What came out of it though was Arnold the Blind Pygmy Puff (he has eyes you just can’t see them under all that fur). The pattern called to knit with 2 strands of fun fur and one strand of regular yarn on a sz 11 (I think it was) needle. With a ton of KFBs thrown in for good measure. Uh..how about no? I used a sz 15 (the largest needle I own) and it was difficult as heck with the double strand of fun fur and then a single strand of regular yarn. After a few minutes I said, “Oh bugger it!” and did my best to finish it off. I had intended it to be a toy for my son and instead it’s a cat toy. At least somebody’s getting some enjoyment out of it.