OH What a FROGGING day it's been!!!
To Frog or not to Frog....THAT is the question! If you are new to the stitching world you may be wondering "what in the world is this lady talking about?" To "frog" your stitches means to "rip it...rip it....rip it" out!! This was a term I used while teaching children to crochet and for some reason it made "frogging" so much easier!!
Well.....in the past 24 hours I have had to frog my project THREE times!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! And since I needed a break before I set out to work again I decided to share on the subject of frogging your stitches.
Some of you might ask "Why in the world would you do that??? Was the mistake THAT bad???" Well....for some eyes it might not have been that bad. And back in the day I might have just overlooked it and called it good.
But why should I settle for mediocre when I KNOW I can do better?? Why NOT fix my mistakes that I know I have made?? Should I overlook mistakes just because it is for me and not a paid project??? These are a few questions you should ask yourself as you consider whether or not to frog.
There is a young lady out there named Ashlie and if she is out there reading this I KNOW she is grinning from ear to ear! You see....Ashlie was one of my grade school crochet students. She plugged away each lesson learning to crochet and was getting quite good and VERY confident in her work. One day she decided she was going to make a beanie. She carefully chose a pattern and started on it in class. So far, so good. Next week rolls around and she is quite discouraged. She shows me her beanie and asks "what did I do wrong and how do I fix it?" Somewhere she had misread the increases in her pattern and what she showed me resembled a VERY ruffly doily!!! At that time Ashlie was about 11 years old. I did not want to crush her spirit....but I also wanted to teach her properly. So I asked her, "Ashlie. Do you want a ruffled doily? Or do you want a beanie?" She desperately wanted it to be a beanie. So I sat and frogged HALF of a ONE POUND skein of yarn as she looked on. The others in the class were really quiet. And the secretary that had come to check on us sat with mouth agape in UNBELIEF that I would actually do that to this young girl. But I tell you what. That young girl MADE that hat and she made it RIGHT!!! And since then she has become one of the best stitchers that I have ever taught!! I am so proud of her!!!
Over the years Ashlie and I have BOTH told this story many many times!! But I tell you this....had Ashlie decided to keep the ruffled doily and start a new hat, I would NOT have frogged her work!!! Frogging is something that each individual should decide on their own. Had I frogged without asking her she might have given up on crochet all together.
I hope you enjoyed my little rant today.
Be Blessed!!
Amy B
Well.....in the past 24 hours I have had to frog my project THREE times!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! And since I needed a break before I set out to work again I decided to share on the subject of frogging your stitches.
Some of you might ask "Why in the world would you do that??? Was the mistake THAT bad???" Well....for some eyes it might not have been that bad. And back in the day I might have just overlooked it and called it good.
But why should I settle for mediocre when I KNOW I can do better?? Why NOT fix my mistakes that I know I have made?? Should I overlook mistakes just because it is for me and not a paid project??? These are a few questions you should ask yourself as you consider whether or not to frog.
There is a young lady out there named Ashlie and if she is out there reading this I KNOW she is grinning from ear to ear! You see....Ashlie was one of my grade school crochet students. She plugged away each lesson learning to crochet and was getting quite good and VERY confident in her work. One day she decided she was going to make a beanie. She carefully chose a pattern and started on it in class. So far, so good. Next week rolls around and she is quite discouraged. She shows me her beanie and asks "what did I do wrong and how do I fix it?" Somewhere she had misread the increases in her pattern and what she showed me resembled a VERY ruffly doily!!! At that time Ashlie was about 11 years old. I did not want to crush her spirit....but I also wanted to teach her properly. So I asked her, "Ashlie. Do you want a ruffled doily? Or do you want a beanie?" She desperately wanted it to be a beanie. So I sat and frogged HALF of a ONE POUND skein of yarn as she looked on. The others in the class were really quiet. And the secretary that had come to check on us sat with mouth agape in UNBELIEF that I would actually do that to this young girl. But I tell you what. That young girl MADE that hat and she made it RIGHT!!! And since then she has become one of the best stitchers that I have ever taught!! I am so proud of her!!!
Over the years Ashlie and I have BOTH told this story many many times!! But I tell you this....had Ashlie decided to keep the ruffled doily and start a new hat, I would NOT have frogged her work!!! Frogging is something that each individual should decide on their own. Had I frogged without asking her she might have given up on crochet all together.
I hope you enjoyed my little rant today.
Be Blessed!!
Amy B
That is a great lesson. It's hard to frog a days work but last night I frogged an entire hat because while it was made fine i just don't think it was what the customer wanted. She asked for red, green, yellow, and neutral or any combination I saw fit. While all the colors looked fine together I felt I should include a steel drum with the drop off. I am back at the drawing board and I think my customer and myself will be happier because of it.
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt...rip it out!! LOL
DeleteRebecca I'm sure your customers appreciate the fact that you go the extra mile to make sure they get what they want!!
I'm the same way! I've ripped out a many a project! Must be perfect or it will bother me!
ReplyDeleteThat is the reason I love crochet! It actually takes less time to rip out crochet than seams of garments. I am like Amy, I just cannot go on with a project that I know isn't turning out correctly. With crochet the mistake is easily remedied, and easily fixed. And no holes from ripping out seams in material!!
ReplyDelete