Friday, February 22, 2013

Charts & Deadlines

I've recently joined a free pattern testing group over on Ravelry. It's cool, but it's making me stretch myself out of my happy little, comfortable (all right... boring) place. It's made me try new things AND finish them!  How funny is that?  Me getting excited about finishing stuff AND being held accountable to a time limit?  Stop laughing.
That's been one of the biggest challenges I've had while knitting... finishing. Oh! Gimme a break! I finish stuff, just um... sometime way (waaaay) later than when I start. Christmas presents need to be started in July; that sort of thing!  Knitting is enjoyable and I'm kind of good at it, but time limits... well... yeah...
BUT now that I've joined this free testing group, I have to be accountable. I must complete the tests I sign up for within set time limits. Must. So far it's been easy. I've completed the few I've done way ahead of time and now I'm ready to begin another one.  I've signed up to make a scarf. Say What?
A scarf?  Yep. A scarf.
Ha ha.... it's a lacy, lovely, huge thing and it has to be done by 10 March.  AND guess what?! I haven't started yet. Go figure.
Hey! I was waiting for my yarn (it arrived yesterday) and when I printed out the pattern... oh no!!  Wait! Whoa! It's a chart. C H A R T . Wow. No k2,p2,k47 kinda thing ~ which is what I'm used to. Nope. This one is all little squares with weird symbols. WTH?
Okay... checking another "trying something new" square on my resolutions box... how in the heck do you read a chart?!
I had to spend some time online to figure this one out and guess what?! It's pretty intuitive. You read it just like a regular ol' knitting pattern except it's more of an 'I don't know how to read actual words' sort of thing. Like a picture menu at a restaurant. Point to the picture of what you want dearies! Each little picture, in each little square means some sort of stitch. *more sighing loudly* I guess I'm going to go slowly until I get all those little symbols memorized... hoping for sometime before row 442.... omygosh I certainly hope I can meet the time limit!

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