the attack of the larch shawlette

Working on the larch shawlette almost brought the death of me.   I cast on and re-knit the stupid thing three times before getting the 'main section' knit just right.  Let me just tell you, the pattern is as follows:

Row 1 (RS): k2, yo, knit to the center stitch, yo,
k1 (center stitch), yo, knit to 2 stitches before the
end, yo, k2.
Row 2 (WS): knit
Repeating rows 1 and 2 until you have a certain amount of stitches.  ...I did this for a long long time and the shawlette was looking nothing like other 'in progress' projects people were working on.  It was just looking like a growing square (and there is nothing square-like about it).  Why...WHY YOU ASK.???!!! Because instead of:

k2, yo, blah blah blah,  yo, k2.

'I' was doing it this way:

k2tog, yo, blah blah blah, yo, k2tog


How I managed to screw this up two times after casting on TWICE, I will never understand.  How did I read k2 as k2tog  TWICE ??!!!  Eight hours of wasted time !!!!  They say ''Third time is a charm,'' and so it was.  I figured it out after re-reading my pattern for the millionth time that k2tog was really k2 plain and simple.

Lets not even talk about the lace section.  I began at the top of the chart which was the start of my problem and could not make sense of the number of sts I was supposed to have on my needle in regards to the chart information.  I read and re-read the chart and instructions numerous times.  I then wrote the pattern writer as well as searched and posted on ravelry forum boards asking what in the WORLD the writer wanted from me.  Was she trying to kill me with a slow and painful death ?  I didn't deserve this, all I wanted was a beautiful shawlette to grace my neck this winter and bounce with me into spring.

After frogging many rows for what seemed like the hundredth time (and probably was) I figured it out.   I was reading the top line of the chart.  Almost ANY chart begins at the bottom and is clearly labeled '1' just as this chart was clearly labeled '1'.  Did I mention after realizing all of this I received a message from the pattern writer telling me everything what should have been clearly obvious to me.  Lets just say I felt like a huge fool for writing her, but she was very very kind to me.  You will never find my forum posts in ravelry as they have been deleted.  I hope the world never sees how frantic and angry I was at the designer for pulling me in to this gorgeous pattern and then laughing behind my back as I pulled out my hair in need of having my beautiful  shawlette.  Needless to say, it is done and finished.

The key to knitting is to not think so much.  I definitely thought too much and tried to take over my knitting.  Like most knitting, it took over me.  Next time I'll surrender much earlier.

Oh, one more thing.  I cast on for another Larch shawlette.  And this time, it's going down.