Picking

So, I had a slight slowdown on Hoodwinked. But my excuse is we had a few REALLY hot nights and knitting didn't sound appealing. But now the sleeves are knitted, and one is attached. At this point I won't bother showing the whole piece until it's a finished product. I have another sleeve to attach, and a zipper to sew on. The zipper scares me. It shouldn't, I know...but it does. It will be my first attempt at attaching a zipper to a knitted piece. But this piece was full of first attempts. It was my first three needle bind off, my first time following a color pattern chart, and I'm not sure how this is possible, but this was my first piece that needed picked up stitches. That was the most intimidating for me. I had to pick up in two places. First, where the hood meets the shoulder. Unfortunately, I decide to wing it instead of getting instructions, so this is what happened...

Nothing so horrible that a stitch or two won't make it look just fine, but slipshod work all the same.

But then I had to pick up a series of stitches around the whole edge - from bottom corner to bottom corner, including the hood - very high profile. Front and center. So I looked up the correct process and voila! I am now a pick up stitch master!

If I can learn this in a matter of minutes, how can I be afraid of a little zipper?