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It's not failure if you learn something from it

I cast on a hat to wear under my helmet for winter riding. I wanted to make something bright and cheerful - and I had some nice bright yarn to use. I chose Kate Davies Peerie Flooers, because it's very pretty.

When I started knitting the contrast colours just were not showing up right, even though they all looked different in the ball. On the second evening, I took a photo, turned it black and white and discovered that, while the colours were quite different, the values were  very similar. Then I went to bed...

And woke up at 3 in the morning, realising I would have to rip and choose different colours. Which I fine with. I'm not sure why I had to worry about it for an hour or so in the middle oft he night.

I found some other colours, and switched around the blues and pinks to foreground colours and made this:

A pretty, cheerful, wearable hat. And look at the crown:

The whole experience reminded me of Felicity's of the Craft Session's recent post "redefining success in craft" where she talks about how a failed project can lead to progress and growth. I certainly learnt about colour values through this failure, and, by ripping and re-assessing, ended up with a far superior hat.


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