Easier the Second Time Around

Many, many years ago, I saw a mini-shawl in a yarn store that I just loved. The store was happy to sell me the yarn and tell me which pattern was used. That's why the sample is in the store, after all.

What they didn't tell me, was how the pattern was actually constructed.

Basically, and ignoring the increases, you work in stockinette until the color of the yarn starts to change, work a three-row eyelet transition pattern, then work in reverse stockinette until the next color change. This is not the sort of thing I am comfortable with. I enjoy following a pattern. I enjoy completely winging it. I had a terrible time trying to combine the two, and secod-guessing myself about where the color change actually began.

Recently I came across the unfinished object - although I have yet to locate the second skein of yarn - and decided to try again. What's working for me this time is to work entirely through the color transition, in either stockinette or the reverse, pick the spot for the three-row transition, and tink back to there. This gets more annoying as the number of stitches increases, of course, but I am also getting better at reading the color changes, and have not had to reposition the last two change at all.