Lucky Day? Who Says?

With all the hype about this being a lucky day, I thought maybe I'd have a chance at some luck, too. Maybe I should have gone to a casino. Maybe I should have gone to the ocean. Maybe...

But no. I decided to work on my socks.

I've never done a short-row heel, and these socks have one. Okay, I thought, not a problem. The directions were written clearly. I had no problem with the leg of the sock, made out of a gorgeous merino/silk blend in a tone-on-tone green. I'd been saving this particular skein for something special, especially since it had 600 yards of luscious softness. The pattern called for 500 yards, so I figured that would be just right, since I always need more than what the pattern calls for.

So I began the short rows. Easy. No problems at all. But when I got to the point where I turned the heel, the directions weren't quite as clear. They instructed me to pick up the wrap along with the stitch and knit or purl them together. Okay. I managed that one just fine. Then it said to double-wrap the next stitch. Huh? Okay. I did another wrap on it - yarn forward, slip stitch, yarn back, slip stitch back on left needle. Still not a problem. In fact, the problem didn't come until a row later.

"Pick up both wraps along with the stitch and knit/purl them together, then wrap the next stitch, turn, and work until you reach the next double-wrap. Repeat."

This is sweet, I thought, as I merrily knitted my way across the row. What a great pattern. Look at that cute little heel already forming. Look at...

Uh... where the hell is the double-wrapped stitch?

It seems that the yarn I'm using makes it difficult to see some of the stitch formations. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where the double-wrap was, which parts of the stitch I was supposed to pick up, and how in the hell I was supposed to get the needle into three knit stitches, two of which were lying across the bottom of the stitch and forming a bar like a purl. Oh shit.

So I gave it my best effort, got the wraps on the needle, and knit them all together. Hm. They didn't look bad. There was no hole at the bottom. I guess I did it right! Yay! So I wrapped the next stitch again and began on the purl side. It was then that I totally, completely, absolutely lost any hope of having good luck today.

I couldn't find the fucking wraps to save my soul.

Once again, I gave it my best guess, but I guessed wrong. Not only did it look like shit, there was a big honking hole at the bottom and a rather ugly bulge on the front of the sock.

Normally, I would throw the shitbag away at this point, but I decided to try and save it. I took stitches off. I worked backwards. I redid stitches. I did everything I could think of, and all that happened is that the whole thing looked uglier and uglier. So then I got the bright idea of picking up the row of stitches just above the last pattern repeat so I could rip out the heel and put in a heel flap. That went just great until my needle slipped. The stitches I was trying to pick up were just fine. It was the 20 stitches at the top which went flying off the needle from the sudden motion of my hands.

(Did anybody ever tell you how slippery silk really is?)

I looked at it in total despair. It wasn't fixable at this point. It was ruined. All that work. All that yarn. All that everything. So I wrapped it up, put it aside, and am pondering what to do with it. I could unravel the whole thing; I could unravel it down to the pattern repeat and try to pick up the stitches again; I could throw it all away and swear a lot. But I love the yarn, so I think I'll try to unravel it down to the pattern repeat first. If that doesn't work, then I can always unravel the whole sock and let the yarn rest before I use it again. I will not be defeated by a stupid pattern. I've been knitting for 48 years. I will get this done and get it done correctly.

If it kills me.

I'm working hard on the update and hope to have it finished by Sunday night. One of the new vendors is the alpaca lady I told you about before. She has a LOT of items which I think you'll go nuts for. There are batts, yarn, cards, etc., all of them soft (except for the cards), dreamy, and in beautiful colors. There are yarn vendors, stitch markers, and all sorts of goodies. I have a new shipment of Debra's Garden needle gauges in new colors - those might not make it into this update, but I'm going to try. I have Hide and Sheep stitch markers to add. There are new additions to existing vendors. It's a riot of color, texture, and beauty. I hope you enjoy it. And don't forget: Creatively Dyed yarn is all $12 a skein, and I think most of it is Seacell.

In closing, here's the picture I promised you a few days ago, the Chapstick holder which my SP12 pal made for me:





Lucky day. Suck my dick.