Covert Crafting

For the past months I've been involved in a secret friends gift exchange with a message board community that I'm a member of. The last exchange I was in I made a pillow.

I editted the picture for the faint at heart. It's not every day you see profanity in pillow form.

This time I have some ideas for my person and I'm making something for someone else. And of course I've decided to do something far past my skill level because I like to make my life easier. I've spent a lot of time planning this week. I have a copy of Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. I looked through and found a beautiful shawl to try. Of course since I have no idea how to read from a chart, this pattern only has a chart and not written line by line instructions. So that I could make it make sense in my head I wrote out the instructions in the charts. TIme consuming, but I know how to read a chart now! Then I typed everyting out because I have the handwriting of a serial killer. Then I was ready to start my test knit so that I could try out the parts that I expect to cause my problems: new cast on method, patterned right and wrong side and the chart itself. The cast on and the first 8 rows were easy garter stitch. Then I started the ninth, and first patterned row and discovered that my painstakingly written instructions for the first 16 rows were wrong. I prevailed though.and managed to get through 4 rows after I figured out my mistake without dropping a single stitch or miscounting. Monica 1...knitting pattern 0.