In the Forest

I am working along on my Deep in the Forest Mittens and I cannot begin to tell you how much this pattern echos life.  

It starts out simply enough.  Just a simple little cast on and a garter ridge as a fold line, to tack back later to finish and firm up the wrist edge of the mitten.  Then simple knitting for a few rows and some fancy foot work.  The braid is a bit of a learning experience, but just like learning your abc's it isn't all that hard once you get the hang of it. You do have to let your assumptions go and do what the errata tells you.  I did have a leg up, having done it before for the mini  twined knitting class I took last summer.

It stays interesting as your work you way through the middle of the project but it isn't really hard.  I think this part would be the knitting equivalent of the early teen years.  It goes just right if you follow the rules and listen to your mother, aka the chart.  From there on in, I don't know.  I'm keeping it covered.  

It isn't that I keep my eyes closed.  Not at all.  I always work like this when I work from a chart.  I know where I have been and use the knowledge to inform the next row I knit.  I don't really know just where that path is going to go.  

Oh I can guess.  From the photos of the completed mittens from the pattern and the many projects on Ravelry, its is going to get just a little more hectic down the road.  I think this slowly getting more hectic must be a little bit like the teen years.  

I'll let you know if the analogy holds as I keep knitting it.