Following patterns—what approach do you use?

Hi,
I’d love to know how you handle it when you’ve bought or downloaded a pattern.
Do you read through the entire pattern first so you know what you’ll need and how the project will unfold, or do you just dive right in and work your way through it step by step, without knowing from step one what the later steps will involve?
For me, it goes like this: if I’m absolutely thrilled with a pattern and have all the necessary materials on hand, I just dive right in—and then, somewhere in the middle, questions inevitably pop up. But because I’m so excited, I sometimes don’t have the patience to approach it “rationally” and think through everything from step one all the way to completion beforehand.
Do you have any tips or special techniques for this?
Sunny regards
Sidney

Most of the time, I just follow the pattern—which sometimes means I have to unravel it.
For the other measurements, I base them on a sweater that fits me well.

Hi Sidney
I usually just kind of jump right in, then get stuck, rip it out, start over, take a break in between, and then start again—and rip it out even more—and eventually it’s finished. That’s why I love crocheting things without a pattern so much, even though I know full well that you can make much prettier things with patterns.