Mistakes Are Our Friends

First of all, I'd like to thank my awesome art business coach, Michelle http://michmysticdesigns.blogspot.com/ , for kickstarting me on finally making this blog.

This is a photo of me back in 1965. I had just learned to knit that year. Remember Earl Sheib the auto painting guru? Well, his wife, Mady, opened a knit shop in my home town and my Mom and I learned to knit there. I was ten. This is the first sweater I ever knit.

I remember the instructions said to rib in K1P1 for an inch and a half and change to St st. I didn't know what that meant, so I just kept on ribbing until I reached the arm hole. I brought the sweater in to show Mady how I was doing. I remember her putting her head in her hands. Then after a long pause, she said, "That's okay, you can make it a poorboy sweater." Poorboy sweaters were just starting to be a hot item back then. They looked cool with hip hugger mini-skirts and fishnet stockings. That was my first taste of learning to take advantage of my mistakes. Some of the best art comes out of going with the flow of the unexpected (or mistakes.) Jazz singers and musicians do it all the time. Performers do it all the time. Artists do it all the time. I highly recommend making friends with mistakes. Because sometimes they aren't miss takes at all. They are new road takes that put you on an exciting new journey called "finding your style." Does anyone have any mistake success stories they'd like to share? Please share them with your Knitfunctional Family.....