Bad Charlotte

I can't get my head around the Charlotte's Web pattern, so to save tearing all my hair out, I've had to retire it for now.
The pattern was so confusing that I've had more relaxing times filling in my tax return. I had tried everything - looking on the web for advice, writing the pattern out line by line, blowing the pattern up to A3 size, but nothing worked. In the end, I just admitted defeat and ripped out what I had done.
I'm all for a challenging pattern. But when a pattern consists of incomplete charts and confusing instructions, that's just sloppy work.
All I want to do is produce a beautiful shawl, not crack a secret code.

So now I am knitting a pair of gloves from the current Rowan magazine (issue 36). The pattern is called Brie, and I'm knitting it in Marmalade Kidsilk Haze.
It's a real breath of fresh air compared to Charlotte. Just simple, straightforward knitting. I'm using US size 11 and 12, which translates to UK 2 and 3. Compared to the UK6.5s that I used for the Kitty hat, it feels like I'm knitting with toothpicks.

I refuse to be beaten by the shawl problem. I've ordered the Koigu Gypsy shawl pattern and some more Koigu yarn from Get Knitted. I hope this won't be a case of once bitten, twice shy.
I noticed that Kerrie also had tribulations with Charlotte and swapped to the Gypsy pattern - at least I'm not alone!