So my reindeer is bigger than yours, and it’s got more antlers.
This is not a brag, just a fact. It’s not something I’m very pleased with, but I can live with it. Today I was going to share my latest Christmas design (which you can find here – for those who just want to start stitching!). I know most businesses have a savvy scheme where they start their Christmas planning and promotions some 18 months in advance, but I still find myself making things for Christmas on the eve of a newsletter send-out…
So it was late last night that I started stitching, and, of course, started making mistakes. An early big one was stitching in low light, miscounting one cross, which caused one whole section to be mis-aligned two crosses out, causing my reindeer to be a few crosses bigger in places than originally intended.
I could say that I embraced these errors because I simply couldn’t afford to start again, but the fact is that I like my mistakes. Yep. I like them. Unless they really totally mess up the design, they belong there, in a weird way. And in this blogpost I wanted to call out to fellow stitchers who are too afraid to show their mistakes: it’s all okay! So my reindeer has an extra antler bit to make up for the fact that I started it in the wrong spot, and is pretty much nearly eating my Christmas tree. But since I had already stitched the whole reindeer I decided to repeat the error on the other side of the tree, and now it’s like it’s supposed to be like that!
When you find yourself making a (big or small) mistake, ask yourself a few questions:
– who are you making it for? If it is for yourself and you can live with it, don’t be hard on yourself. Are you entering your work for a competition? If the competition requires the pattern for checking, it might be worth to start again. Otherwise, keep it and make it look as if you meant it that way!
– are you happy with it? This might be the most important question. If you really don’t like it and can’t live with a few crosses out of place, then you should start again, rip it out, do what you need to. But if you’re happy with it and only fear what someone else might say, I’d say: keep it. Take pride in the fact that you made something. It might not be perfect, but it’s yours!
