The Importance of Following the Directions

I thought that today I would have a picture of my latest finished knitting project to show you. Instead, I get to share with you the valuable lesson I learned today...the importance of following directions to the letter, especially if you are doing something for the first time.

On Monday, I decided to start a new knitting project, using some Lion Brand Velvet Spun yarn that I picked up on a whim, for no other reason that it was on the clearance rack. I found a pattern on the Lion Brand website for the Bunny Blanket Buddy, which you can find here. Here is a picture of it though.

By Monday night, I was up to the point of starting the head of the project, and feeling pretty confident that I would be done by Tuesday night.

However, mom life won out over my desire to sit and do nothing but knit. My project wasn't finished, but my laundry was! It wasn't until last night that I was able to pick up my knitting needles again. By bedtime last night, I had finished the head and ears, and had nothing left to do but stuff and finish, a 20 minute job, tops. Visions of knitting these as baby gifts for every new addition born to friends and family danced through my head.

I sat down this afternoon to finish up, confident that this project would be done in 30 minutes or less. The written instructions didn't make sense, so I decided to do it my way. Mistake number one. I didn't like how it wound up looking, so decided to take the stitches out and start again. I snipped a stitch.....the wrong stitch....and watched a hole appear in the bunny's ear. Mistake number two. Nothing to do now but rip it all out and start again. Sigh.

The yarn I'm using is very fluffy, and as I ripped out rows, it shed like crazy. By the time I got to a point where I thought I could "rescue" the project, my family room was covered in downy yellow fluff. The family room I vacuumed this morning. Another sigh. As I was picking up stitches, all of a sudden, the written directions made perfect sense. Had I followed them to begin with, I would've been done in 15 minutes. Exasperated sigh.

Hopefully, I will finish this project by tomorrow, and will be able to post a picture. The visions of lovely baby gifts are back, and some good came out of the experience. I learned the importance of following directions the first time, and my own baby will get a new lovey. But I think I will switch to counted cross stitch for a while.