Knitting, why have you forsaken me?!

I should have known. Or more correctly, I knew. I knew the socks seemed a little big; they were a little loose when I tried them on. Wasn't too worried about it; mother assured me she didn't care.

I plugged along, finished the foot as per the instructions (1 inch shorter than foot length). Plowed through the heels (which are Double Stitch Short Row heels).

Y'all...they are ENORMOUS. Things went terribly, terribly wrong.

I checked my gauge when I first noticed the bigness, and thought I was getting 8.5-9 stitches per inch. Online calculators informed me that my stitch count (64) was right on for that gauge. But...I KNEW.

Having re-checked it (since I now have the world's largest sock swatch), I seem to be getting 7 stitches per inch! I don't know if things are stretching or I'm blind, or both.

At any rate, I have to RIP OUT THE ENTIRE THING AND START OVER.

Lessons learned:

1. Listen to your knitting common sense FOR GOD'S SAKE.
2. Quadruple check your gauge.

I'm digging my favorite trusty sock book out of storage as well, since it never steered me wrong before. Oh, and a size 1 circular (I'm pretty sure I have one somewhere).

ARGH. *insert sounds of my hysterical weeping here as I mournfully update my Ravelry page*

In other news, I guess this means I'll be able to snug up and perfect the heels the next time around.

Jinxed

I managed to jinx myself in one of my last posts by stating that I was managing to stay caught up with my mini-KAL. I fell behind last week and didn't finish Segment 2 as I was supposed to by last Sunday, so I stalled poor Sam.  She told me she'd wait for me, even though I insisted she continue.  I have a couple of "waiting around forever" activities the next couple of days, and I know I can catch up.  Stinks to be nearly a week behind, though.

In other KAL news, the Mean Girls Yarn Club (to which I currently belong) is having a KAL that starts July and ends in August that seems like something I can manage.  We can use any pattern we want, we just have to use yarn that came from the club.  We can also do more than one project if we're feeling spiffy.  I plan on making another monster, and if I manage to get that done in decent time, I might go ahead and try to make something else (to be determined).  I'll have to start scrounging through my queue and favorites to see what could work with DK and fingering weights.  I know the fingering section of my favorites is a little...full, so there's potential there.

Curse of Dumbness?

...I don't know what's going on with me, you guys.  I was working on my mitten last night and things were going well, but then I noticed I had a weirdly loosey-goosey stitch.  This led to a series of problems I will not list here, but which ended in the frogging of my mitten (grumbleSOBgrumble).

I don't know if its my state of mind (not enough concentration?) or just some weird knitting curse (those exist, right?) but this is super frustrating!  I'm trying to actually work on things only to get thwarted at every turn (by my own mistakes)!

On the plus side, the needle I was using for my mitten was kind of annoying me (it wasn't really as long as I would've liked for magic loop), so maybe I can use this as an excuse to buy one >:)

Grumble

I attempted my Traveling Woman again last night.  I even pulled out my chart keeper and its fancy magnets to keep everything straight.  I very, very carefully knit Row 5.  Things seemed fine.  Back across Row 6--things were still matching up.  I looked at the clock and thought, "I have plenty of time to do rows 7 and 8!" and started Row 7.

Immediately things seemed amiss.  I carefully counted my stitches, double-checked the pattern...but my purls weren't lining up.  Instead of trusting my knitter's instincts and checking the chart (I've been following the written instructions--its easier on my brain), I plowed ahead, assuming it was just how the pattern was.  Got to the end, where I was supposed to have 8 stitches left...and only had 7.  Panic.  Anger!  Then I realized what I'd done:  I'd forgotten to do a yarn over before the last two stitches of Row 6.  That's why I was a stitch off and a stitch short.  ARGH.

So now I'm in the process of tinking back Row 7.

For the record, the entire stockinette portion of this shawl has you use stitch markers at either end, to keep that yo k2 (or k2 yo depending on the end) straight, but when you start the lace section there is NO MENTION of the markers!  The stockinette instructions had always had instructions to slip the marker, but there wasn't any sign of it in the lace instructions, so I assumed I was to remove them. 

I am totally putting them back so that I don't have another airhead moment and forget to yarn over!