Fluffbuff

Considering that I am probably the knitter with the most UFOs in the Alpha quadrant, I shouldn't even be thinking about a new project, right? But do I care? Course not. There's something about starting a new project that is just irresistible and once in a while I even finish an item or two. Really.

So, while I am giving my steel yarn a few days' rest so I can start again with renewed enthusiasm in a week or so, I got my hands on a big fat skein of Lorna's Lace in a gorgeous indigo shade and three nights ago I made a swatch for the Myrtle Leaf shawl on page 142 of Victorian Lace Today. This is actually the shawl I wanted to make right away when I got the book, but didn't because it seemed more sensible to start my first lace project with a pattern that didn't require attention on every row, as this one does. Eventually, I went for the Trellis shawl because the pattern was easier and worked only on the right side.

But back to my swatches. The first swatch was pitiful; I screwed up the SSK and SSP so when it didn't look right I blamed it on that. As it turns out, that was only half the reason. Being the impatient person I am, instead of making a new swatch, I cast on the required 87 stitches for the real thing. Almost immediately, I realized that 87 stitches wasn't quite right. Once you knit together 2 stitches in first row after casting on, you are left with 86 stitches and the pattern clearly only requires 85 (a multiple of 11 plus 4 stitches on each side = 77 + 8 = 85). So I ripped and cast on 85 stitches and everything seemed ok. OR was that my first mistake?

Two days and almost two repeats later, I found out that something was wrong again. Everything looked good with the first repeat, but at the beginning of the second repeat the leaves close properly in one of the columns but not in the other. Where the leaves should close up to a pointed tip, they stay open and the joins are offset by one stitch (or so it seems to me). I am not sure I am describing the problem clearly, but has anyone else had problem with this pattern? Am I doing something wrong or is there a typo in the pattern itself?

Help! Somebody please tell me what I'm doing wrong!

In my frenzy, I ripped everything out before taking pictures. Then I started another swatch and had the same problem. I am clearly making the same mistake over and over. Someone please rescue me from my misery…

Oh, I forgot… I transcribed the pattern to a little flipbook, so I have one line of instructions per page. I checked and rechecked my transcription several times and couldn't find an error.