My Local Knitting Group... and Siamese Cats!

While I've been out of the normal loop this week due to a "gastrointestinal virus"...aka tummy bug, I've had more time than usual to sleep and knit, which gave me time to think about the "new" knitting group at one of the local public libraries.
The knitting group meets on Friday afternoons, on a drop in basis. Weekly, there are between 2 and 20 knitters, ages 4 to 80 something (or around there, I don't want to ask people's ages when they're my elders!). These knitters are brand new to experienced, and I've had a WONDERFUL time meeting them, and slowly getting to know them as the weeks pass. The group started meeting in October, and I look forward to joining them, when I can. While I can talk your ear off when I know you, I am VERY shy otherwise, and it surprised me to take the initiative to join the group and participate, as I consider my online knitter friends as my "knitting group", especially on Ravelry and the She-Knits forum and Yarn Thing forum on the site. It has been a blessing to meet these local knitters in person (as well as giving me a place to give away all the acrylic and fun fur from years past to the pre-teen knitters, who love the fluffy stuff.)

What else is new? On my needles:
The Tramline Cable Pullover is coming along well, as well as the Cabled Scarf. I seem to switch between the 2 projects. On the iPod, when podcasts aren't being heard? I'm obsessed with audiobooks by Lillian Jackson Braun, specifically "The Cat Who..." mystery series. I love this author!


Regarding Chart Reading:

I can't show you the complete pattern, of course, but below is a snippet of a chart I'm using for a project. It may be known and practiced by all knitters, but I personally had to find out the following on my own, through frogging and ripping endless charted projects, when I misread or count a charted pattern.
So....drumroll...this is what I do, and voila! No more problems. I'm a slow learner.

1. Copy the pattern I use.
2. Using highlighters or light colored pencils, I color code my key and the chart. IE: specific cable patterns, unusual directions in the pattern, or when the pattern says "at the same time." It takes only a few minutes, and visually, I find it much easier to follow the chart. For example, after awhile I automatically remember "Orange! That's a 2 stitches in front, purl the next stitch, then knit the 2 stitches on hold"...or Yellow!
That's a simple cable too...Knit the second 2 stitches, then the first 2 stitches, or whatever you use to memorize your cables. This is the first project that I haven't used cable needs on, and I LOVE it.
3. I then tape this to a business sized envelope (or index card, depending on size of chart), and include pertinent information such as stitch definitions, cast on directions, and where the original pattern is located, so I can refer to it as needed. This makes it much easier for me to have a portable project. So, this is how I operate. :)