I don't think I'm an expert knitter by any means, but I'd like to think I'm a fairly accomplished knitter and I can understand the basic make-up of how patterns are supposed to function in order to get desired results. Last night I had an epic battle with the Bashful Butterflies shawl. There was a lot of foot stomping, some cursing, and the whole thing almost flew across my bedroom at one point. I knit, ripped back, knit some more, ripped back again, and it was all over 2 stitches. 2 stray little stitches that I had no idea where they were supposed to go. Of course it was all a conspiracy in my mind. It was the designer that wrote it wrong. It was the shawl that was messing with me. It couldn't possibly have been me since I followed the directions, and I knew this because I had read them over at least 20 times just to be sure.
And then it dawned on me. The border changed from 3 repeating stitches to 4, so naturally, I would have 2 extra stitches if I kept insisting on knitting the border using the 3 repeating stitches instead of the 4 it was calling for at this point in the pattern. In my defense though, the border stitches are not written on the chart and you are left to assume what's going to happen with them on the pattern, but being that I'm a fairly accomplished knitter, I should have learned to expect certain behaviors from my knitting, right?
After that misunderstanding was resolved, I have moved along nicely with the shawl. I've already started the second repeat of the chart and plan on at least starting chart C by the end of the day today. This is actually knittng up rather quickly. Of course, I am only at the beginning of knitting this thing and it hasn't reached it's full length yet, so I'm sure pretty soon I will eat these words but for now I would like to think that it'll be done with by the end of next week-ish.
By the way, I am having a sneeky sale over at my Artfire store. It's an "after-birthday, I-need-to-move-some-of-my-yarns" sale inspired by the kitty below, Cocoa, who is trying to be oh so sneeky while I'm making my breakfast this morning.
Look at her intently watching me while I'm cooking my food; with those big yellow eyes trained on me as I move about the kitchen. She was ready and waiting to pounce on anything that may land in front of her. She thinks she's slick, but I'm on to her.
So head on over to my Artfire store and get 25% off all items in the store using the coupon code "SNEEKYSALE".
