Without a clue

Sorry, non-knitters. I have to talk about knitting for a moment because I need a little assistance but you're welcome to read on if you're bored, want to learn about knitting or are feeling particularly masochistic.

Now, as for you yarn types:

I need a little help with lace knitting. I've not done it before but I think I get how it should go. I've also never - gulp! - knitted anything where I had to make decreases. I am hooked on the rectangle!

Anyway, I'd like to knit Cozy from Knitty and I seem to be bollocksing up something and I need to get this straight before I buy actual silk and make it for real (right now I'm practicing with some scrap wool).

Anyway, one is to cast on 85 stitches and the pattern goes in multiples of six stitches plus one. The pattern calls for the first stitch of the odd numbered rows to be knitted - that takes care of the plus one. The rest of the pattern is for 84 stitches in multiples of six so that means I'd be making 14 repeats. I suck at math and all but even I can figure out that much.

Wait - let me get out the calculator and double check.

Anyway I have cast this thing on three times now. I count and recount and I know I've cast on 85 stitches. My problem is I don't get 14 rounds of repeats. I knit along and end up, for example on the first row, with 4 stitches left and I need more than that for a pattern round.

So let me tell you what I'm doing and one or all of you tell me what I'm doing wrong.

This is the pattern for the first row:

Row 1: K1, [YO, k2tog tbl, k1, k2tog, YO, k1] to end.

This is what I'm doing:

I knit the 1st stitch. I do a yarn over on the 2nd stitch. I knit together the 3rd and 4th stitches through their back loops. I knit the 5th stitch. I knit together the 6th and 7th stitches. I do a yarn over on the 8th stitch. I knit the 9th stitch.

I can see right there that I've used up 9 stitches instead of 7 like the pattern is making me think I should. Obviously I either can't read this pattern or I am doing something wrong. What am I doing wrong? I'm supposed to do this repeat pattern until the end of the row but I only have four stitches at the end of the row and I can't do the whole repeat pattern with just four stitches.

Let's take another row where I don't know my ass from my elbow about what I'm doing:

Row 3: K1, [YO, k1, sl1, k2tog, psso, k1, YO, k1] to end.

This is what I do:

I knit the 1st stitch. I do a yarn over with the 2nd stitch. I knit the 3rd stitch. I slip the 4th stitch knitwise from the left to the right needle. I knit together the 5th and 6th stitches. I take the 4th stitch that I slipped to the right needle and pass it over the 5th and 6th stitches I knit together. I knit the 7th stitch. I do a yarn over with the 8th stitch. I knit the 9th stitch.

Again, this doesn't come out evenly.

I got to this row:

Row 7: K2tog, [k1, YO, k1, YO, k1, sl1, k2tog, psso] to last 5 sts, k1, YO, k1, YO, k1, k2tog tbl.

and felt like finding the nearest brick wall on which I could slam my head repeatedly.

Essentially the only rows I'm not screwing up are the even rows where I purl only.

If any of y'all know what I'm doing wrong or can explain how to do this right, let me know. Email me if you don't want to leave a comment.

Okay, you non-knitters can join the class again. Knit talk is over. Let me say I'm proud of you for behaving yourself while standing in the hallway.

Nothing new for an update on the weekend. It snowed. I watched movies and finished off the first season of Gilmore Girls on DVD. I knitted. Both of the baby blankets I was working on are finished.

Oops. Lied when I said knit talk was over.