Trial and error: My tale of two pumpkins

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Top pumpkin is how I'd sketched it; the bottom one is the first
one I made with the increase not where I initially planned for
it to be.


How much experimenting do you do when you bead?

I ask because I generally don't like to do much. I want to know when I start a project what each stitch will be. If I accidentally stray from the original plan, aka make an error, I take out stitches and fix it. And when that's done, I move on to another project.

Or that's what I typically do.

This past week, armed with a twice-redrawn pattern for pumpkin earrings, I sat down to string it up in square stitch, a method that I haven't used much. In row three, I made an error as I was trying to do an increase, making the increase closer to the edge than I had sketched it to be.

In the past, I would've backed up to where I had made the mistake and fixed it, but this time, I was curious about how it would look. Maybe my "mistake" would turn out to be better, or maybe it would be worse. So, I completed the pumpkin as it was and made the other side match.

Then I made a second one just as I had sketched it. In the end, the differences between the two were minor, though I do think the "mistake" pumpkin is the better of the two.

But ever since then, my brain has been thinking about other variations for the pumpkin -- adding in a darker orange, or making the pumpkin a little taller, or both, adding black on the edges.

I plan to make them all, making the one that makes me smile the most be the one I turn into an earring set.

Does anyone else work this way? I know it will take me a lot longer to complete a set of earrings like this, but I like that this time, I was thinking beyond the pattern.

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