I have been knitting on and off for a little over a year and now and have mastered the basic purl and knit stitches. I have been trying to branch out from the basic garter and stockinette pattern though and challenge myself with learning new patterns/stitches. I found a website online that uses variations of purl and knit stitches to create intricate patterns. The pattern looks overwhelming at first but really it's just repeating a certain amount of purl and knit stitches over and over again. I also taught myself how to do a slip stitch for the pattern. A slip stitch just involves sliding the yarn loop from the left side to the right side without working it. The tricky part is keeping the tension right after you slipped the stitch. Through lots of practice, I have gotten good at keeping a nice tension and creating neat stitches, however, I struggle with counting stitches and keeping track of what row I am on.