I was feeling fairly confident when I choose my crochet project for the summer. I’ve crocheted a hat and a scarf before, how hard can expanding on those basics really be, right? Um, wrong.

I’d bookmarked a tutorial for how to make gorgeous crocheted lamps months and months ago from resurrection fern, and I decided this summer was the perfect time to make a pair for my porch. I picked out my Cotlin colors, chained 5 and away I went.

First mistake- using the wrong size crochet hook. I started out with an F which made sense for the Dk weight yarn, but not for the lacey, stretchy fabric I wanted to make. This is much too dense-

Okay. Sigh. Ripped back. Chained 5 with a size K hook. Ignored the fact that the 5 stitches in the middle formed a noticeable bump. Kept trucking along. Decided my increases were making it too ruffly, so I stopped increasing for a couple of rows. Wasn’t getting that lacey look anymore. Started increasing again. And now we’re here-

This is not going well. What do you guys think? Should I start over? Chain more stitches to start with (so I don’t get that slightly anatomical looking bump?) and follow the pattern instead of stopping my increases willy-nilly? Do you think I’m doing the single crochet stitch incorrectly? Or should I power through and hope that it will all look okay when I stretch it over a balloon and dip it in watered down glue? I need some advice.