This deceptively simple crochet pattern is kicking my butt. I think it's the Lavish Lace Crochet Shawl that's free from Lion Brand but don't quote me just yet.  Anyway, only a few (7) people have posted finished ones on Ravelry and most of them had no problems whatsoever with the pattern or else they just didn't want to say anything negative about it.

Here's where I'm having a problem.  Starting at the beginning...Row 2...the stitch counts are wrong.  And then the whole pattern goes wonky from there.  Yes, it's so simple that a competent crocheter could easily figure it out but what's the purpose of having a pattern if it's all wackado.  I think one person said that they followed the pattern row by row and didn't have any problems...well, I'm going to have to doubt that one.

Once you're off on the counts then every single row after that ends up with extra stitches or non-existing stitches.

On the Lion Brand site one reviewer mentioned having the same problem that I had so I know it's not just me.

I've been crocheting a l-o-n-g time and this pattern is just messed up.  I don't think that it's a misinterpretation thing either, it's just written wrong.

Anyway, I'm just going to do my own thing with it and it'll be fine. 

Oh, and this picture here is actually a huge knot. When I got irritated with the pattern I undid the rows and did not wind the yarn.  So now I have this huge knot.  My bad.

Today was the day to catch up on miscellaneous business.

I forgot to mention that over the Thanksgiving weekend I cooked my very first Pot Roast. I was inspired by Laurie's post at Crazy Aunt Purl about her successful easy crockpot pot roast. However, I used the oven instead because I totally forgot to put the roast in the crockpot the night before. This should be no surprise to any of my regular readers knowing that cooking is the last thing on my to-do list for the day. Anyway, it turned out well and I'm encouraged to actually try using the crockpot next time.

I've been procrastinating on some Christmas projects even knowing that time is short. I put the blame on my brother for showing me how to play Mafia War on Facebook.

The game is having a 15 minute maintenance downtime right now so that's one of the reasons I'm over here blogging.

Other than that, I also read through my bloglines/google reader blog subscriptions and saw that Beth Doherty over at Gourmet Amigurumii has blogged about some of her latest awesome crocheted characters. She is so amazingly talented and even though she shared some of her design techniques in her book, the dolls that she creates are perfection.

Gotta go...maintenance should be finished.

Happy 16th Birthday, C!

You've been a blessing to us from the day of your birth. We love you and are happy to celebrate this day with you. It's been fun having you in our lives. Now let's go eat cake and P-A-R-T-Y!