Read ALL Instructions

I come from a family of talented women. They can crochet, tat, and sew. Myself, not so much. I have recently tried taking on the task of the cute little stick with the hook on the end. Yes, crocheting.

It seems easy enough. Learn to read the hidden messages between the lines of morse code, and ta-da, you have a project! Nope, not quite. You learn the basic stitches, single crochet, double crochet, even a treble! Ah, but there is one important step. I have learned that you must not be so full of yourself as to get ahead and "assume" the instructions you are reading are basic. Well why should I have to read them? I know how to double crochet, and it says - double crochet. So I did. After a repeated tear out (not even going to mention how many times, but the yarn was starting to fray) I finally read those cute little words in italics. But wait, it is only telling me how to double crochet reduce, and I already know how to do that, and then there it is. The morse code is broken. It is the basic double crochet, but now a new little step has been snuck in for this pattern. Now I am not only doing the step I know how to do, but I am adding the mystery step to the pattern so as to manipulate the project to its actual appearance of the photo I have been viewing in the book. Amazing.

I am on my way to figuring it out. The project is similar to the photo now and my rows look uniform. Now, if I can only figure out how to get those lovely edges even I will be a master!