What to Do When You Hate Your Finished Knit

There comes a time in nearly every knitter’s life when they finish a project and feel a sinking in their stomach. The project is not good. In fact, they hate it.

When that happens, sometimes there are things you can do to salvage the situation. Other times, it’s best to rehome the project. Let’s talk through the process I use when I decide what to do with a project that just isn’t working.

Figure Out What You Dislike About Your Project

The first step is always to figure out what exactly it is that you dislike about the finished project. Is it the color? The fit? The feeling of the yarn against your skin?

Each of these issues is going to require a different solution. Until you know why exactly you dislike the finished project, you won’t know what to do about it.

It can be extra tricky if the reason you dislike the project is entirely emotional. Sometimes, you end up hating your project because you were working on it during a difficult time of life. You might also want to avoid a project you made for somebody who hurt you before you finished it.

In those scenarios, some might say it’s silly to let your feelings get in the way. I disagree with that approach. Feelings are real things that shape our behavior. If you have bad feelings about a knit, even if it’s a perfectly nice project otherwise, you likely still won’t use it.

Might as well figure out what else to do with it.

Determine Whether the Project Can Be Salvaged

Once you’ve determined why a project is making you unhappy, the next step is to figure out whether the project can be salvaged. If it turns out you hate the project because of the yarn color or the way it feels against your skin, the odds of salvage are pretty low.

But you might hate the project because it doesn’t fit well. If that’s the case, blocking might fix the problem quickly and easily. Block the project to the desired dimensions, let it dry, and see if it helps. Be careful, though! Don’t get overly aggressive in your blocking. You don’t want to put too much stress on the yarn. Remember, too, that blocking to fix measurements is only a good fix for small issues. If your project is 10″ too small, blocking is unlikely to be able to fix that.

If you’ve already blocked the project and it still doesn’t fit well, you might be able to frog it back to a certain point and make some adjustments when you reknit it. You might also be able to change your needle size or choose a different size in the original pattern.

Try Frogging and Knitting Something Else

Sometimes you love the yarn, but you hate the finished knit for a different reason. In that case, I recommend frogging it and knitting something else.

I’ve done that where the proportions of a finished garment just don’t work for me, even when I hit gauge. I’ve also done it where I don’t like the fabric of the finished garment because of the gauge the designer chose.

This is also a great option where you don’t hate your finished project, but it turns out you just don’t use it very much.

Try to Find Someone Who Will Enjoy the Project

There are times where you finish a knit and end up hating it because it feels terrible against your skin, but it’s otherwise a beautiful project. If that’s the case, I recommend checking around with your friends to see if any of them have less sensitive skin that wouldn’t be irritated by the yarn.

This can be a good solution, too, where you finish a knit and discover that the color you chose does not go well with your skin tone. Don’t ask about all my misadventures in attempting to knit with lavender. I will just cry. (It’s such a pretty color and it keeps luring me in, but it makes me look like I’ve been unwell!)

Frogging and Destashing is an Option

If the project can’t be rescued and you can’t rehome it, an option would be to frog it and destash the yarn. You should, of course, disclose when destashing that the yarn has been knit up and frogged, but many knitters don’t mind that.

You can go to a yarn swap at your local yarn store, destash via social media or Ravelry destashing groups, or donate it to a local school, craft program, art teacher, afterschool program, or senior center that would find it useful.

If you do decide to frog and get rid of it, please don’t put it out for birds or wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a great explainer for why that can be dangerous.

Remember, it’s not a personal or moral failing to finish a project and decide it’s just not right for you. Knitting is a process of learning through trial and error, and, sometimes the only way to learn is to make mistakes. What matters is what we do after the mistake.

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