Are knitters geniuses?

I've been knitting off and on for about 10 years, and while I'm by no means advanced, I'm the kind of knitter that has to try something new with each pattern. I'm not content to knit a stockinette-stitch box sweater with one color, there has to be at least a little bit of visual interest. But because of that I end up picking patterns that at some point manage to completely confound me. I will read it over and over and can't seem to make sense of it, to the point where I end up involving my non-knitter but very analytically-minded husband. This makes me wonder whether I lack the organizational and number-oriented skills to become a really great knitter. I think knitting is more like baking than cooking, you really need to follow the recipe perfectly and not just throw in a little of this 'n that. And I'm always amazed at the designers featured on sites like www.knitty.com who in their other lives are molecular biologists and astrophysists while simultaneously managing orphanages and traveling around the world. It's not just that you have to be smart - you have to be a certain kind of smart. I'm beginning to think you have to be more left-brained analytical than right-brained creative. You have to be able to count and remember numbers, and I'm very NOT number-oriented. I guess the reason for someone like me (more on the creative, visual free-flow side of things) is to train my brain to think this way - orderly, analytically, following direction. But boy do I get frustrated when I can't figure something out. Oh, but the good thing is my husband actually does help me figure knitting directions out, even though "knit" and "purl" is the extent of what he knows.