Shawl Every Day 2021 - Day 55 - Unintentional Customizations

Sometimes in making, we make “mistakes.” Something doesn’t turn out like we wanted or we skipped a step or did a knit instead of a purl. A lot of us makers would consider these mistakes, but they don’t always have to be. Angela Walters likes to refer to these occurrences as “unintentional customizations.”

Maybe it didn’t turn out like the pattern, but it still ends up looking cool. I bet the person you’re making it for doesn’t know what it was “supposed” to look like and has no idea you did it “wrong.” It’s still cool and they’ll still love it.

Maybe you added a flower and you were supposed to add a swirl. Well, if you add a few more flowers, it becomes a design element and it will look intentional.

It’s important to remember to be graceful with yourself and go with the flow. Sometimes it’s needed to go back and redo it, but sometimes the “mistake” can turn into something cool you didn’t even mean to do.

Shawl pattern is Quaking Aspen by Dee O’Keefe