Read it all before you start

So.  It's 34° outside, 28° inside and I've just finished making a shawl.  A lovely 100% merino wool shawl at that.  I can hardly bear to hold it, let alone wrap it around my shoulders but here it is - all washed and blocked.

This is the March design from Rockin' Sock Club.  Yup, I've had this since the end of March and if I had actually started it in March I could have worn it when it was still a little cool out.  But for one reason or another I didn't start - probably because I was digging a garden.  Anyway, the leaf motif around the edge is gorgeous - I can see this pattern being reused for something later on.

A word about patterns.  Like many people, I prefer to use charts to work lace.  I find it easier to follow than the written instructions.  However, I have learned that it is always worth reading the written instructions as well.  In this case, the chart icon for all the wrong side rows was a blank square.  They key indicated that blank squares were knit.  Not, knit on the right side and purl on the wrong side (which is what I was expecting to see).  Just knit.  So I knit them.  The leaf pattern (a 15 row pattern) was to be repeated 59 times.  So I knit this leaf 59 times.  Plus one slightly different leaf at the beginning and one slightly different leaf at the end.  And on the very.last.row of my very.last.leaf there was a new icon.  This icon said to purl two together.  Except I was knitting.

As it turns out, if I had read the written instructions, I would have known that all the wrong side rows were to be purled.  Just like I expected them to be.

The moral of the story.  If it looks wrong, it probably is.  And read ALL the instructions through before you start.