Knitting frusterations...

I've finished the first of the kilt hose pair. Unfortunatly, it comes up slightly short on my leg. Hopefully, my boyfriend is stubbier then me, and the kilt hose will fit him. Worst case... Looks like I'm unraveling a sock. A very. Long. Sock.

Just in case, I've started a second sock from the toe, heading up the leg. It's going to require a lot of improvising though.. I used Judy's Magic Cast on, slightly improved, to cast on 24 stitches. I increased every other row until I hit 48 stitches, which is the number of stitches required to case the foot in the original pattern. Right now, I'm doing the 5x1 rib on the top of the foot with one needle, while the two other needles are in stockinette stitch to form the bottom of the foot. Once James gets home and tries on the first sock, I'll know whether or not I should continue.

My only problem with changing the pattern to a toe-up improvisation is that I'm not sure when I should do the increases to form the calf. I could guesstimate the length, using the completed kilt hose as a guide. However, the original kilt hose could be inaccurate.. Given that I'm unsure it will even fit.

So, I'm a little upset. I really don't want to unravel this sock all the way to the leg, but that will be my only option if it doesn't fit him. Obviously, this is really not what I want to do, but I don't really see any other option. I'm really frustrated, and quite frankly disappointed that I wasn't more careful. I'm in school right now to become a goldsmith. Yet, here I am messing up measurements in my knitting. Is this not what I'm supposed to be learning to prevent?

Measure first, knit second?

I'm just angry right now, and I really hope the worst doesn't come to it. I don't know what I would do with myself if it doesn't work out. I'll just have to wait until James gets home and tries it on. We'll go from there.

Busy..

Turns out lately I've been busier then I thought possible. With school ending for the semester, I had to finish all of my projects to get them ready to hand in. I had three projects left, plus an in class practical exam. I organized my time, and figured I wouldn't have an issue getting everything finished.

Turns out, I ended up in the hospital for two days with appendicitis, and on medication for a week after that. During that time, I physically had no energy what-so-ever. Meaning I didn't work on any projects, except for my in class practical exam. Meaning that I had to ask my teachers for an extension for my projects, to which they generously offered the last day of school. I spend the second-last day of school working frantically for 8 hours in the studio. But I pulled it off! I managed to finish all of my projects, a feat that a lot of other students weren't able to do, but I was! Hooray!

I've also managed to do quite a bit of knitting in the past couple of weeks. Right now I'm working on a pair of kilt hose, using a really good pattern I found off knitty. The only issue I have with the pattern is that errata is available on ravelry, but knitty.com still hasn't changed the available pattern.

I ran into a couple of problems while I was working on these. My first problem that wasn't simply difficulty with the pattern, was that when I turned the cuff inside out to knit the leg, I realized I was one stitch short in the round. To solve this, I just added a stitch to the end of the round. Knitting commenced. This kilt hose uses a number of decreases along the calf to for the sock, which makes for a really nice dagger style look.

Unfortunatly, my decreases didn't seem to quite line up properly, so I fudged quite a bit to make the lines even during this stage. I only decreased 15 times, where the pattern says 17. But when I do my own count, I should have done 18 decreases. I haven't heard anyone else have this problem, so I'll assume it was my own inexperience. I'm working on the heel flap of these kilt hose now, and I can't wait to see if they fit him or not! I've also recently bought a new book, Sock knitting from the Toe up. I can't wait to give this book a whirl, the patterns and concept look so amazing. So.. That's my life in a nutshell. Tomorrow I start school again, an 8 am class for metal casting. I'll take pictures, and we'll see how well it goes. <3