I belong to a knitting group that meets once a week at our local yarn shop (LYS). In return for purchasing our yarn at this store, we have the use of an attractive room and the expert help from our friendly yarn lady. There's about a dozen of us, sometimes less, and we range in experience from beginner (me) to yarn artist - from Oops! to Wow! In the course of our last get-together, I happened to mention the Amish Mistake. No one knew about this - so I continued:
I first heard of this during my quilting lessons, probably to offset the frustrations of manipulating fabric that didn't want to be put in those positions. It seems that the Amish, known for their beautiful handmade quilts among other things, always put a planned mistake into every one of their endeavors. Their faith proscribes that only God can make something that's perfect, so each mistake is an admission of His superiority.
It's a charming thought, and I try to apply it to all of my other efforts. Someone once said - "We strive for excellence, not perfection." Nice to know that life has given us all that wriggle room. Rock on!