First Square: Turtle

I am starting an afghan for my son. I found the CUTEST turtle motif on Ravelry, adapted from B. Walker's Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns (on a side note, I didn't think publishing this particular square pattern on a public site followed copyright rules, because it is only found in that book; I happen to have this book, so I don't feel like I am breaking any laws...) Anyway, I wanted to use a greenish yarn. Well, I didn't have the right weight (wanting worsted) but I do have a chunky weight in a nice heather green color. I cast on last night and I must have been having a really off night because I just could not get the pattern right.

First, I didn't know that I was knitting with a chunky yarn (I know, duh, I should have read the ball band). This meant that I had to find the correct size needles. Ugh.

Then I wasn't reading the chart correctly. In charted patterns, like all of the patterns in B. Walker's third treasury, need to be read back and forth. It was easier for me to read the odd rows as the wrong rows, which I read from left to right, and the even rows as the right rows, which I read from right to left.

Then, I had to keep reminding myself that the right side has a PURL background and consequently, the wrong side has the knit background. Being that I started this project at 9:00 last night, I realize now that I probably should have started with an easier square. But dag nabbit, I really wanted to knit this darn turtle! It's so cute.

So anyway, if you are knitting the turtle from B. Walker's third treasury, this is what I would suggest: Start knitting the turtle on the right side (which is on a purl background) and remember that it will be on an even row, count your stitches because most rows have different stitch counts, and FROG if you are off. I am serious about the Frogging part. It's not worth refiguring the stitch counts. Believe me, I tried.