Do All Crocheters Frog Their Crochet Projects?
By Rachel Choi – 53 Comments| Frogging is the process of ripping out and undoing your crochet stitches when you make a mistake. Rip it, Rip it! If I’m not mistaking, all crocheters frog their work at some point or another. At least I know I do. Frogging can be frustrating if you spent a lot of time crocheting only to rip it apart later. But at least you can learn from the mistake made. |  |
When I was first learning to crochet I remember having to frog a lot of my projects, because they didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. Frogging used to be extra frustrating for me, but now I remember to keep in mind that it is a learning process. Although I am more experienced today, I still find that I frog my work. Frogging seems to be a natural part of crocheting, despite one’s skill level.
What about you? Do you frog your crochet projects?
I’m making your water bottle holders right now and need a whole bunch. So, I’m considering frogging a few tote bags that I made months ago and making the water bottle holders, so all of them will be in matching yarn! Beats heading out to the store to buy more yarn and I can always re-make the tote bags in any yarn!
Oh yes, lots of frogging here! 🙂
My good friend Autumn and I always say Rip-it…I am forever frogging her work, so when I must rip out my own…she laughs at me.
Two weeks ago, I had 9 ladies over to crochet. I found a mistake in my work, and decided not to rip it out to where the error was. My friend Sandra said…you know that the right thing to do is to rip it back to where the mistake is. I said, “I will not do it, the person receiving this will never see the error. Well, after a few minutes, it was bothering me so much that I secretly starting ripping out to the error when Sandra saw what I was doing. She made sure to bring this to everyone’s attention in the room! They all had a good chuckle at me…as I always rip mine out, but when I decided not to….I was found out!
I think that maybe I need a shirt with the Frog it on it!
I enjoy your blog!
Great blog post! I will frog only if: 1) it will affect the outcome of the design, and 2) if the mistake is not too many rows down from where I am in the project. Otherwise I leave it because who’s going to notice it besides me anyway? lol
Rip it, Rip it, Rip it!!!! I’m all about the FROG! 🙂
All the time! I’m glad to know I’m not the only one. I’ve never heard the term “frogging” before but yes, I do it all the time! I do it when I make a mistake and have to go back and fix it, or if the project is turning out way too big or too small then I have to go back and readjust it. I also have taken apart other abandoned projects to use the yarn for something else.
I always frog back to where I made an error — the ONLY exception being if the mistake absolutely won’t affect the shape/size of the item AND I’ve already done more than an hour’s worth of crocheting before detecting the mistake. Which means, of course, that 97% of the time, I frog it. 🙂
Yes, I have had a lifetime of it. Years ago I had a friend that refused to rip anything out. I would offten get sacks of yarn and projects that had been started……it was like Christmas.
I did not know there was such a term for it. Frogging sounds so much better than ripping. Puts a positive spin on such a frustrating activity!!
Heck no. I’m perfect. Didn’t you know that??? I am surprised. I tell everone often enough….
Yes! I have been to the frog pond many times! I remind myself that I like to crochet as I rip-it, rip-it, and that I’m just giving myself the chance to crochet some more without even moving from where I’m sitting right then and there!
I didn’t know it was called frogging! How cute! I am a somewhat experienced crocheter but recently I had to rip out 7 rows. Oh well. Nobody’s perfect!
Yes, I’m guilty of it 🙂
I can say I frog alot I agree with Diane we need shirts saying frog it on it. This would be cool I had tried to make a bath mat a couple years back but did not have enough yarn so I left it while this year I decided to frog the cotton yarn because I did not want to go out and buy more cotton in case I wanted to make washcloths or whatever I feel like making with it.
Sooooo that’s what you call it huh?
I usually call it oh no not again!!! I have been working on a blanket for my soon to be born grandchld, and this pattern is a real faith tester!!!! It involves frpdc’s to make animals, be off one or two stiches and you have to frog it.
But the thing is you don’t realise youve made the mistake until 4 rows later when you run out of sc’s to go further or the elephant trunk looks like a leg??!! This blanket is over 60 rows and since jan. i have only gottena as far as 47, and have frogged it 5 yes 5 times!!!! im done frogging tho it will be done no matter what by end of june!!!!
I like that Chris Oh no not again….the blanket your making sounds very intricate. I’d be interested in pictures when your done. Good luck with it!
I love the rip it rip it. Yes, I do a lot of frogging. Most of my frogging is for my sisters though. They like it when I crochet a little square or something so they can pull it out. THey think it is a lot of fun!
I started making a baby blanket a long time ago with the Red Heart Soft Baby Yarn in the color New Mint Twinkle. At the time I didnt know much more than a Double crochet. So when I needed to make a baby blanket for my boyfriends cousin who is having her first baby in august, I frogged the plain DC blanket that I started so that I would have enough yarn to finish the project. I have looked at a few different stores and it does not seem that they carry this yarn anymore. Its so pretty too. Its a mint green yarn with flecks of blue, yellow, pink and purple in it.
i didn’t think i ‘frogged’…AND YET I DID LAST NIGHT! a ripple that does not have points-but 5 stitches on top and 5 on bottom and after 50 rows, noticed it was NOT what it started out as
I only have one thing to say……..ribbit, ribbit!
so, that’s how it’s called 🙂 and i am sooooo guilty! 😉
Well! Now I know what noise to make while I am telling my students about “crocheting backwards…” I tell them that sometimes you have to take a few steps backward to go forward.
I do also remind them that if someone is inspecting their finished garment so closely that he or she can count and notice one extra stitch at the seam line, that person had better be showing up with chocolate and roses if he or she expects the right to that kind of intimacy!
In other words, as people have already said – Frog Realistically! Rip it if it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. If it’s an extra stitch in a scarf made with eyelash yarn that you’re giving to a child, maybe the frog can stay in the pond!
What a great discussion! Thanks, Rachel!
Yes, I never heard of this name “frogger’, but I have to admit I have been for at least 38 years now.
If it affects the outcome or is too noticeable I have ripped all the way back to the beginning, but sometimes I can’t justify all that work and then I just make like a tree and leave-it!
HI, I always knew it was called frogging, never knew why though, rip it , rip it, so thanks for that anyway! ha ha, Yep, have frogged, Im sort of a perfectionist, I remember teaching my brother to crochet, he refused to rip anything out, saying it won’t matter, and no matter what I said, he wouldn’t, then would complain loudly about “HIS” project not looking like everyone else’s in the group! We made bowl looking birds nests once for a rehap and rescue group, and his always turned out like funnels instead of bowls. I usually secretly ended up either ripping them out, before sending,and possibly remaking them, or simply not sending his, as any constructive critisizem by me was not met with open arms, even though I was only trying to instruct properly, ha ha. Had it been an error not affecting size, nor shape of the project, I may have been a bit more tolerant! However a funnel shaped birds nest, was really beyond my realm of belief, as the point to this project, was to provide a warm home, for found, or abandoned baby animalS. Oh well, live and learn huh. So to make a long story longer, yes, i frog, I have in the past, do it now in the present, when needed, and will continue to rip it, in the future, Im sure~! Color me green ! Now, where did my nice comfy lilly pad dissapear to this time!
beyond my realm of belief, as the point to this project
no pun intended…….funnel, point, get it!
I wish I could say no way to this. LOL As it is I frog so much I am thinking of making a lily pad next. LOLOLOL This is not so much for errors (though I do indeed make those and frog them), but for projects I start and which get put by the wayside. Every now and then I go through my UFOs and decide to either finish or frog. All too many times it is frog!
I only frog if I absolutely have to – and if it will be really noticed. I’m a believer that nothing is or should be perfect. Accidently straying a little bit from the pattern makes each item unique, and makes the finished product an original. Some countries deliberately add flaws – it gives items character. The last time I frogged was recently – and a must. I’m making an afghan, and my beginning chain was too tight. As I added rows, it began to look more like a ruffle than a flat blanket. Yep – definitely had to start that one over. I ended up using a hook 2 times larger for that beginning chain – it worked like a charm.
Definitely, I just frogged a project trim last night and substituted a different one. Sometimes the yarn is different than the one in the directions and I change the pattern… I sometimes make mistakes while working because I am talking or distracted… Frog!… and correct…. it is the nice thing about crochet… I will sometimes make a sample to see how the size will turn out with an amigurimi… in that case, I’ll leave the mistakes in and only frog the second project from the same pattern.
yes,some projects require alot more .frogging than most.I have been crocheting and knitting almost 40 plus years hope be for another 40 plus.
I did a lot of frogging when I made fillet crochet name doilies. I have a lot of relatives with the last name of Moore. I didn’t notice my mistake on the letter “M” until I was done. I didn’t frog that one, I just kept it as a reminder not to mess up “Moore”.
The teacher of my fillet crochet class told me how she crocheted a large table cloth in the round and didn’t find her mistake till she got back around to it. That would frustrate me to know end! Above, desanka talked about having to “frog” because of a mistake back 50 rows on a ripple afghan. Ouch! Sorry to hear that. That is why I like small projects. So if I make a mistake, I can go back and “frog” it and not “croak”.
i am just frogging 8 rounds of tawashi this morning.. it is so lik eme… i think frogging is necessary and it’s a part of crochet journey.. 😉
You sure have a way of saying things. Frogging I never heard of that one before. I consider myself a frogging person. You are very funny. Rip it rip it ha ha ha.
Oh yes, I frog it all the time! Helps me to think of it as “upcycling” or “recycling” though – rather than error-proofing. 🙂 But that’s what is so lovely able crochet – the yarn is never wasted!
I just had to frog a tunisian piece on the first row. when I looked back to count my stitches I had skipped one. I have been crocheting since I was 10 years old and I am now 48. I consider myself somewhat of an expert but with room to learn more. The way I learned crochet was to take it back out and do it again. It is also the way I teach it. When I was teaching my daughter in law how to crochet she would bring me her swatch and I would tell her to take it out and do it again. I am a perfectionist too so when I see a mistake in my work it might drive me crazy if I don’t frog it. LOL
I do, but I never thought of calling it “frogging” before. I just called it “redoing part of it” or “unraveling it”. Did you make up that term, or is it an actual crochet term?
I sure didn’t make it up, but I’m sure someone somewhere did! For all I know it’s just a fun word passed around in the crochet community 🙂
I frogged last night.It is just essential sometimes.
The Bible has a verse about that. In Galatians, it says “As you sew,so shall you rip.” OK, I admit I took some poetic license.
i seem to frog my UFO’S ,mostly when a needle is not with it and i cant remember what size i was using it drives me nuts.lesson learned ,bought storage bags for sweaters at dollar tree one for each UFO so they each have thier own bag needle and pattern (if there is one ) all in the bag.i also frog alot when working on a zig zag aphgan i cant remember to count. Happy Crocheting to all
I HATE having to frog a project – I haven’t had to do more than a few rows but even hate doing that. Just last night I was working on a wrap and some how ended up with an extra stitch in my row. So instead of finding where I made the mistake (and since it was only one stitch) I – for the first time – learned to decrease stitches. But I’m sure my day will come….
I only frog if it makes a difference in the pattern. If I find that I am a stitch short, or long I just increase or decrease if it something simple.
I was making a sweater for my step-daughter and I think I spent more time frogging than crocheting. LOL
Yes I am a frogger. I can’t continue crocheting if I know there is a flaw. Even if no one can see it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me I just have to take it apart and fix it. I just think it is the right thing to do.
I am a fairly new crocheter, and try to just “fudge” any flaws…however I also do some frogging…Just did some this morning. Was working on a baby scratch mitt and realized it was WAYYYY too big…so instead of wasting the yarn I went ahead and pulled it out. Hey Rachel…just an idea….have you ever done or thought of doing a post with those terms and abbreviations that a lot of newbies may not be familiar with? Such as frogging and UFO’s….I know when I first started reading some blogs and forums I felt like I was reading a foreign language! Love reading your posts and trying your patterns! Keep ’em coming!
Yes…..I sure do frog! Even though I’ve been crocheting since my mother in law taught me
while I was expecting my son 36 years ago….I am still quite capable of mistakes, sometimes
seemingly simple ones!
There are times I will tell my husband, “Oh, no! I’ve done all this crochet work and now I see
a mistake! I’m going to have to pull it apart!”
He’ll tell me to let it go, no one will notice.
I will.
I will know there is a mistake in the fabric, and usually my crocheting is a gift for someone else.
How could I present a gift–for example, a prayer shawl to someone undergoing chemo…..
when I know in my heart it isn’t done well?
I can’t.
So I frog. Happily frog….so that a gift is the best possible work I am capable of doing.
Doris in Maryland
I think I frog at least 10% of the rows in any piece. It’s sad. I get sidetracked very easily, and before I know it, stitches aren’t adding up!
Yes, I understand. Son or husband needs something and counting louder does not deter them.lol
5 balls in, in an attempt at creativeness – not.
2 balls in for the 2nd attempt.
Found the blanket stitch posted here and am now hooking in the third ball.
Beautiful. Drapes wonderfully. Texture galore.
It is a keeper this go round.
Obsessive Frogger here!
I am always frogging. My friends laugh at me, but I’m a Virgo. Can’t knowingly let a mistake go by.
I’m working on the Trendy Baby Afghan. I needed to frog a row and pulled out the very beginning instead. About 2 inches or so of the beginning chain. I’m new so I have no idea how to weave or fix it. I don’t mind starting over that much. But I’m wondering if there’s a trick to fixing it. Thx 🙂
There’s no trick (as far as I know), so you would have to take it apart until you get to where the mistake is at. Sorry!
I am a beginner. Thank you for making me laugh about what I am about to do. I am halfway through a baby blanket and the ends are not looking right. I kept going, but worried on it. Not wanting to frog, I kept on. After reading this, I decided that it is okay and actually the right thing to do. It is just yarn and I will learn from it. Thank you all!