I should know myself well enough by now to know that a quick and easy knit gets harder if you think it's so quick and easy that you forget to pay attentions. That's what's been going on with my Mother-in-Law's mini blanket. The pattern, Radiating Star Blanket by Alexis Layton, is beautiful and simple. It shouldn't have been a problem.
The first thing I did was cast on over two needles using the long tail cast on. I do this almost as a rule to make sure my cast on edge isn't too tight. Well, I got the center star finished and decided that the circular hole in the middle was really big and loose. I ripped out for the first time and started over, casting on over only one needle. It looked much better.
I finished the first skein of yarn and the second star pattern about a week ago. I used a spit join because I hate weaving in ends and kept on going. I was trucking along and things looked great. About 14 rows later, I realized that there was a mistake about eight rows back...but I couldn't figure out how that was possible because the pattern seemed to line up. I dropped about 8 stitches and unraveled and knit them back up correctly. But now there were really more problems. I stared for a long time. I unraveled and fixed a couple of other places. I looked at the loose stitches and the additional problems. What had I done? I had made multiple mistakes on 7 of the 8 repeats. Ugg. I ripped back 8 rows and started again. I finally got back to where I'd ripped out...and found another mistake six rows back. Luckily, it wasn't too bad, and I was able to fix it without all the ripping back this time.
Now I've marked the beginning of the round, and I will pay more attention--even if I'm watching TV with my husband!