I had jury duty yesterday. This meant that, when I wasn’t being grilled simultaneously by two attorneys and a judge, I finally had a good chunk of time to wrap my head around the pattern for my very first crochet project: the Garden Scarf from the Stitch ‘n Bitch crochet book. I was quite pleased to spend much of my day hooking (er, that’s what she said), and, in triumph, I now present to you my first two crocheted flowers! Aren’t they cute?

Thing is, I’m doing it wrong. I know this because my finished flowers—while perfectly acceptable to look at—are decidedly NOT the same as the corresponding flowers in the photo in the book, nor do they match the pattern. Now, I’ve frogged and frogged, counted each row, and frogged again. I can’t, for the life of me, figure out where in the world I’m going wrong. I’m not counting the slip knot or the loop on the hook and I’m starting out with the correct number of stitches, so what gives?