Notes from the other side:

• This pattern can seem a little intimidating, what with the “left double decrease” this and “right double decrease” that and all, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Other than those double decreases, everything else is straight up knit, purl, yarnover, slip slip knit, and knit two together. That’s part of what’s so great: These are beginner skills but the finished product looks like it took advanced skills! :)

• I wrote out the instructions for rows 32, 34, and 36 longhand, and referred to that note rather than the pattern when I got to that point. My brain processed better that way.

• This bullet item is mostly for written pattern-followers instead of chart-followers: For odd rows 21 through 31, when you purl, you’re purling the yarnover, across all heart stitches, and then purling the next yarnover. You’ll become accustomed to this and look for it to help you stay in pattern. And then! Suddenly on row 33 you knit through and start purling AFTER the yarnover. Don’t let this alarm you. Not that it alarmed me or anything. Not like I became sure I had missed a stitch somewhere or something. Ahem.

• This is not a pattern that hides mistakes well, because there is always another example of the heart pattern right there next to it to compare to. If you make a mistake, unknit back and correct it. It will be worth it in the end. Especially for:

• Row 36. Once you have finished this row, stop. Do not proceed. Make yourself take the time to pause and count your stitches. It is super easy to miss one of the yarnovers or k2togs in row 36 (for me, I am prone to miss the “put this stitch on the other needle” part of the right double decrease), and you won’t notice until you have knit over 1000 more stitches (rows 13-20) and are beginning the base of the next heart on row 20. That’s an unholy butt ton of knitting to undo, so do yourself a favor: Count after row 36.

12/6/10 I’m done! I’m done I’m done I’m done! Woo!

Okay, so I’m “done”, but I still need to bind off and block. That will happen this evening. And then it will be photographed and shipped to California for sweet baby Claire.

11/29/10 I got in some really great knitting time over the Thanksgiving weekend. I’m definitely not going to finish this by 11/30, as I’d hoped, but I will be done before Christmas for sure.

11/22/10 Halfway done.

11/8/10 Once I got into the rhythm of this pattern, it’s been pretty smooth sailing. The acrylic yarn isn’t giving me as much trouble as I thought it would. I hope to have this complete before Claire’s one month birthday.

11/3/10 Making a center pull ball out of a Pound of Love skein is a BEEYOTCH. But I did it.

Long tail cast-on, for the large size (169 stitches). I placed a marker every 25 stitches while doing so so that I wouldn’t need to try to count and recount my cast on stitches - I hate that.

10/31/10 I have a new baby cousin! This means, of course, I must knit a blanket for her. :)