I think there is a point in a knitter’s life where one crosses a line. A line from reading a pattern and trusting every single character in it, even when it seems to be saying the wrong thing (most of the time, they do)…to the other side, where one assumes that one knows what the pattern is saying and one plunges forward with the confidence of a knitter who has knitted for years…only to find out in the end, that you were wrong, oh so wrong.

About two months ago I decided to knit the pinwheel baby blanket pattern and to teach it as a class. In short, this is the pattern:

Cast on 5 stitches and join for working in the round.

Knit one round.

Increase into each stitch.

Next row: K1, yo* around.

Knit one round.

Next round: K2, yo* around.

Knit one round.

Next row: K3, yo around. Are you getting the idea yet? This basically goes on endlessly until you are knitting something like 42 stitches, then a yarn over, then another 42, bla bla bla SHOOT ME

After spending endless hours knitting this stupid baby blanket, I cast off those millions of stitches on the ruffle, and there it was: a giant baby ruffle, not a baby blanket. (Kirby liked it though) No matter what I did, it would not block flat. After much internet research, I concluded that I was the only person who ever had this problem with the pattern and therefore, I am an idiot and am clearly missing something.

Last night I figured it out. As I was teaching the baby blanket class, one of my inquisitive students asked for clarification on the pattern, “Now that I have done one increase round, I do a knit round, right?” Um…let me check the pattern. Um, yes, in fact, you do. But I did not. Nope, not even once. I worked this entire pattern without ever doing the knit rounds…just kept on goin’ with those increase rounds. Awesome. Awesome Danielle.

So I frogged. I frogged that miserable baby blanket and now I am on a race to complete it before July 25th, when the baby is due (not my baby, clearly. But A baby…someone else’s baby. A friend’s baby)

So in short, read the pattern. Read the entire pattern.