When In Doubt...Write it Out

It works for to-do lists, vows, speeches...and yes...patterns. I made some progress on the Cotton Classic Jumper for Meezee last night (during Book Club I might add), but I realized that I was really being slowed down by the pattern. A wise knitter on my favorite forum often says "trust the pattern". Not this one - this one is only a page long, and it was obviously written for someone at a level I haven't even glimpsed yet. Shortcuts, assumptions, and no row counts. If this were a food recipe I might end up serving catfish marmalade when it was meant to be chicken noodle soup! Anyway...I do better when I write things out. It helps to put things in perspective. So I decided to write out the pattern, row by painstaking row. Today's lesson? Putting things in perspective can sometimes be like a bucket of ice water on your head after you've been sleeping for hours. Here's what I learned...If my calculations are correct, this pattern is a little under 150 rows long (PER SIDE) to produce a 20" dress. So I will be knitting just over 300 rows. For those of you just joining, I intend to do this by Saturday March 11th. Yeah. I know.

I must say, as I wrote the pattern out, more and more of it made sense to me. Eureka! Although, there's still one area in the neck shaping that I had to type in bold red text. With yellow highlights. *sigh* We'll get there...that's a gagillion rows from now. Back to perspective...here's a shot of where I reached yesterday (February 25th):

No no - don't bother counting, I'll save you some time. That's about 41 rows. Four - one. Out of 300+.
With what I've added today at Row 57 (hmmm...back of the napkin math...add 7, carry the 3....) I'm 9% finished.

And you know what? I'm not nearly as bitter about that as I sound. The way I see it...I rescued myself from the worst fate of all today - quitting. Writing the pattern in a language I understand will at least get me as far as the bold red highlighted bits, and then , maybe I can run ziploc-in-hand to my Local Yarn Store and get it finished.
I wonder if they'll seam up a project for me if I fain tears?.

Note: This photo brought to you by my favorite Book Club Beautie, she who helps me blossom into my insanity.