I often get the feeling when I'm chatting with less experienced Knitters that they think I have some secret inborn talent that they lack. One told me once that I never seem to make any mistakes. I laughed at that and said "I make lots of mistakes you just never see them because I rip those things back out and either fix the problem or create something new". At the time I was obsessed with garter stitch sideways gloves that I was making with yarn leftovers every time I finished a project. I shared a failure with her, one of the pairs were unwearable because the yarn was too heavy and made what appeared to be clown gloves. We had a good laugh over that pair.
That's one of the great things about knitting, often our materials are reusable so we can fix some mistakes. I think we all know this doesn't work well with sticky mohair but works great with smoother yarns. When I was first designing I often knit something, analyzed what I could do better, made notes and then ripped back and knit the improved version.
Fear of failure often dominates Knitters. They don't learn more because they don't make mistakes because they don't push themselves to try to make things that they think are beyond their abilities. I'm a big believer in the saying that you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. I think mistakes are inevitable and that while you make fewer mistakes as you gain experience that the unsuccessful projects are the most important things you will ever knit.
