...I had my last cigarette.
Three full years without even a drag off a cigarette. Weird.
The kicker is that I still want to smoke. Fiercely, at times. But only when stress at work is bad. Then I'm all like, "Quitting isn't worth it! The craving never goes away!" But the problem is that I only want to be able to smoke at those times, when I'm pulling my hair out and don't know what else to do. I don't want all the other cigarettes, just the really good ones! But. Smoking at all means smoking all the time (at least I finally learned that lesson), and I simply can't go back to that.
At one year after quitting I celebrated getting through the previous year and gaining some understanding of the smoking/withdrawal cycle. Now, at three years, I'm sometimes back to celebrating not smoking in the last five minutes. In my saner moments, I still recognize that what feels hard now at times was hard all the time before I quit, and much, much harder than it is now. As much as I whine at times, I still don't smoke, and it truly is worth it.
This specifically talks to the charts for Durrow, but the concept is important for reading any knitting charts.
Odd-numbered rows are front-side rows, and even-numbered rows are backside rows. The chart point-of-view is always the front-side, though, which is initially confusing. It's why a "-" character is a purl stitch on an odd-numbered row but it's a knit stitch on an even- numbered row. It's also why you work the chart from right to left on odd-numbered rows and left to right on even-numbered rows.
That's also why the row numbers on the chart are where they are... as a mnemonic for where you start from. Take a look at one of the charts (NOT the mirrored charts!), and you'll see that even numbers are on the left and odd numbers are on the right.
If you're a right-brained, highly visual type, try visualizing the chart in three dimensions, just like your knitting. The chart as presented always matches the right side of the fabric you're knitting. It doesn't seem to match what you're seeing while you're knitting a wrong-side row, but that's only because you're looking at the back of the fabric. There's a bit of a conceptual leap to associating what you're doing on the back-side with what's happening on the right-side (which is what the chart is showing), but once you make that leap it all makes sense.
I think that the Durrow charts are especially challenging because the row stitch counts vary, making them a less acurate visual representation because what's happening visually in the charts isn't really being visually represented in the work. It means that you have to trust a little bit more than you do while reading charts for work with a static number of stitches where all the grids align properly.
Make the suggested chart edits from my posting, take a deep breath, and trust. It really will all work out...
Thanks to Caren for the question... hope my answer is useful!
Come on down to the Toronto Art Expo, in which Pirkko is participating (see a sneak peek at some new drawings here, and see some paintings here). I'll be there for the opening on March 16, and the Expo runs from March 16 - 19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
This is one of Pirkko's more recent paintings (and it's also currently my wallpaper on my PC at work). I don't understand how, but it's pink, and I hate pink (no really, I hate pink a LOT!), and still I love this painting. I tell you, the woman's a genius.
