The rules

I had someone complain recently that I applied rules on an appropriate place to post her request - "I don't like rules!" was the whine, as she deleted the rest of her posts. My first thought was, well, the question couldn't have been that important then. I couldn't make head nor tail of her post myself but two folks had tried to answer already as it concerned a specific machine and I felt that the wider forum (not the sales forum) would get a better response. My second thought was, try running a few traffic lights on red and see how much you like rules then (assuming you don't kill yourself in the process). Even a hippy commune has a rota for whose turn it is to clean the toilets or milk the cow. Hey, I was an eighties rock chick myself, I'm not keen on rules - but without them there'd be chaos. My third thought was, ooh, a flounce!

This happened a few days back, but I was reminded of it today when I sat down and actually read the written instructions for the Crow Prints shawl. I just followed the chart, I get lost with written instructions, but my shawl is coming out upside down, or rather, it starts with a point where it should have a straight edge. Turns out the central pair of yarnovers aren't indicated on the chart - in fact, if you follow the written instructions, every pattern repeat seems to start and end with a yarn over, also not indicated. I didn't follow the rules, and got a different design entirely; and no I'm not going to frog it - I'll just finish the repeat I'm on and cast it off I think. I'm so DONE with this shawl!

But at least I've figured out why it's not coming out the same shape as everyone else's....