Pattern Anxiety

 I've been knitting on and off, mostly off (until about 2 years ago) for about 30 years.  Three years ago, I was ill and knitting helped me get better.  The regular click clicking was the rhythm I needed to soothe myself back to health.

So since then, I've been knitting mostly long boring patterns: straight stitch cable stitch a little bit of knit two together and yarn over but never, have I attempted a real lacy pattern.  I DID teach myself to knit in the round, to do the long tail cast on and made 3 socks with a little help from a friend at the office.  Not bad progress over that period of time for someone who devoted just a few months a year in my spare time.  I don't often knit in summer because it's so short, I don't want to miss anything.  Fall means soup and knitting for me and this stretches out until April mostly.

As I am now semi-retired, I picked up this pattern to make for my darling hair dresser C.  She has turned 40 this year and she is so very good to me. 

So how much work can one little line of pattern be?

Too much it turns out.  I started this a couple of weeks ago and after the ribbing and 3 rows of knitting were done, I anxiously gave a go at the pattern.  To my dismay, but not really to my surprise, I ended up with extra stitches on my last needle.  I abandoned the project and registered with my local yarn store for knitting help.

I just got back and I am elated.  Turns out there's a little mistake in the pattern and I was doing the YO after a purl stitch the wrong way...

I am so proud of myself.  This was the best gift, from me to me to kick it up a notch and kick the pattern anxiety up the wazoo!

Love,

Happy Stella