My first project was a disaster

March 12, 2026 · 5 min read · By Wanessa Oliveira

Everyone shows you the finished piece. Nobody shows you the first one. So here it is, in all its crooked glory.

My very first project was supposed to be a simple scarf. I had a pile of bright acrylic yarn, a hook that was too small for it, and a video I had paused about forty times. I pictured myself wearing it by the end of the week. I imagined friends asking where I bought it.

What I made instead looked like a long, wobbly triangle. It started narrow, got wider in the middle for reasons I still can't explain, and ended up narrow again. It was stiff as cardboard. It could have stood up on its own.

What went wrong

Almost everything, honestly. I pulled every stitch so tight that my hand hurt after ten minutes. I didn't know about turning chains, so I added stitches by accident without noticing. I never counted my rows. And I picked a hook that was far too small for the yarn, which made the fabric dense and hard.

The worst part was that I kept going. I told myself it would "turn out fine" if I just kept working. It didn't. After three evenings, I held up my scarf and laughed out loud. Then I almost cried.

Unravelling isn't failing. It's just giving the yarn another chance.

The moment I almost quit

I put the hook down for a whole week. I told myself crochet wasn't for me, that some people just have the hands for it and I didn't. Then one evening I found that sad little triangle at the bottom of my basket, and instead of throwing it away, I pulled one end of the yarn.

It came undone slowly, row by row. Watching all those stitches disappear felt strangely peaceful. By the end I had a soft, kinked pile of yarn, ready to be used again. Nothing was lost. That was the moment I understood that crochet forgives you.

What it taught me

• Relax your handsLoose stitches are easier to fix than tight ones, and much kinder to your fingers.
• Match the hook to the yarnCheck the yarn label. It tells you the hook size that works best.
• Count your stitchesCount at the end of every row until it becomes a habit.
• Start smallA coaster or a square teaches you everything a scarf does, in an hour.

Why I'm glad it happened

That scarf never became anything wearable, but it became the reason I write patterns the way I do. Every time I explain a stitch, I think about the version of me sitting on the sofa with a stiff triangle in her lap, wishing someone would just tell her what was going wrong.

So if your first project is a mess, good. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. Keep your yarn, keep your hook, and keep going.

With love, Wanessa