Handknit Dove from Above

The handknit dove from above was created was a journey into the unknown world of knitting patterns with no instructions. When ambition outweigh skill, you aren't necessarily the best judge of what is quick/easy to knit. Given this little fellow was in good old stocking stitch (knit one row, purl one row etc), I figured it would be easy peasy, just a few nights' effort. Not so.

This pattern was simply a bunch of coloured squares on a grid, which you are meant to follow increasing or decreasing as you go. Well, I missed the critical step which is to read the grid from right to left for the first row. Hence I was increasing at the end of a row and not the beginning, which I rapidly discovered was quite tricky and looked in short, wrong.

Luckily Granny W stepped in and pointed out my error. So I started again, reading the first row from right to left, but this time as I progressed, got so cross eyed reading the grid that I kept losing count on which row I was on and which direction it went in. Argh.

A quick trip to the local wool store later, and I was in possession of a row counter (very handy as long as you remember to notch up your rows as you go!) By this time I'd ripped out and started again so many times, the wool was in a right state, so I spent an hour labouriously writing out the pattern by hand, so I could ignore the grid completely.

It took a long time getting there, but the end result was sweet. Thankfully like most things, you forget the blood, sweat and tears and only remember the good bits, which in this case was moving onto to the next project and vowing never to use a knitting grid pattern again.

Note to self; I vow not to vow never to do stuff as I will seriously restrict my crafting activities. List so far, moss stitch and knitting grid patterns. Fingers crossed I can keep this list short.