The leap of faith

The second charted lace pattern in Shipwreck is "Bleeding Heart." It's a ten-row pattern, repeated twice. On that tenth row, there's a note in the pattern saying, "Move marker one stitch to the left before beginning this row." This was the source, for me, of much confusion.

First, I attempted it while I was working on DPNs. When using DPNs, I can't put a marker between the last and first stitches of the round, because that's generally at the end of a needle. So, I put it after the first stitch. Was it already in the right place? Who knew? But before I could actually get to that round, I bollixed up something badly enough that I had to start over. OK. I figured that in the absence of specific directions about where to place a marker initially, it made sense to put it between the last and first stitches, and that would be easier if I switched to circulars before beginning the Bleeding Heart chart. On Take 2, that's what I did.

Then, I understood about moving the marker one stitch over. I didn't understand, though, whether I was supposed to start row 10 AFTER the marker, or before. Before didn't really make sense, and looking at some forum posts on Ravelry confirmed this: I was actually changing the starting place of the row by one stitch. Good enough. But...what was I to do with the stitch that had been the first stitch and was now, thanks to the movement of the marker, the last stitch? It wasn't part of the previous row's pattern repeat, it was just extra. Did I knit it? Slip it? I elected to take off the marker, slip that first stitch onto the right needle, then put the marker on again. I took a deep breath, and took the leap of faith. Round 10 worked up in perfect alignment. Yay!

Next, I was faced with the question of whether or not I was supposed to put the marker back where it had been before beginning the next round. It was not stated to do so in the directions. To be certain, I counted stitches, and sure enough--I needed to just leave it where it was! No need to replace it. Fine by me. I'm in the middle of that second set of Bleeding Heart now. I just wanted to make sure to note down all this stuff so that maybe someone else who's as confused as I was might see it someday on Ravelry!