finished object Friday

a sunny spot

I'll be the first to admit that my first attempt at this Serengeti Sun dishcloth is a bit wonky. But it's done - finally, after months and months on the needles - and I love it! And on a rainy fall day, it's the perfect pick-me-up, isn't it?

Progress on this dishcloth came screeching to a halt when I couldn't understand the instructions for the first point. I tried and tried and tried again. And ripped and ripped and ripped again. I even contacted the designer, who tried to help even though she is dealing with serious health issues and vision problems after a head injury earlier this year. As the only Raveler on record as having attempted this pattern I had nowhere else to turn, so I posted my plea for help in the patterns forum on Ravlery.

And no sooner had I clicked "post" when I realized my problem: I had to work the increases by knitting in the front and back of the next stitch. By using a M1 increase I was screwing up the stitch counts. DOH!

I'm definitely going to knit another - I'm confident that it'll turn out less wonky on my second time through the pattern. There a bunch of things I've learned:

• Work the increases by knitting in the front and back of the next stitch
• Where the first two stitches of a row are slipped, slip them purlwise with the yarn in front. Enlarge the above image and examine the right sides of the points - the bumps are from before I clued in. 
• When picking up stitches for the applied iCord, remember that the end stitches were K2togs - you only need to pick up one stitch not both. Picking up both is really, really hard; ask me how I know!
• For your first time through it might be wise to knit the small size with just a single strand of the yarn. Knitting two strands of cotton can be painful, especially after ripping back a bunch of times.

How about it? Want to knit one? If not a Sun, then what about this Star from the same designer which looks to be of similar construction? I'll gift the pattern to the first twenty people who leave a comment before the end of the weekend expressing their interest on this post. In your comment please indicate which pattern you'd prefer and provide your Ravelry user name.

Don't forget to check out all the good work at Tami's Amis! Happy Friday and spread the sunshine!