A day of "ARGH!"

I've just frogged my sock for the fourth time.

I decided to try Cat Bordhi's "Veil of Leaves". It's a lovely pattern in the Cedar architecture. I wasn't entirely certain about it. I'm very mathematically minded and this sock has a little bit more of an organic feel than I really like. But I figured I could work with it.

Let me present to you my last couple of days knitting.

First Attempt
Hmm. Cat says to cast on 72 sts for a "Cobblestone Cuff". Okay. Oh, wait. She says cast on with Judy Becker's Magic Cast on... that's.. good heavens that's 144 stitches. Well. Okay. Casting on 144 stitches with JBMCO.. Hmm. Judy's doesn't work really well with more than 10 or so stitches. But. She says do it. Okay. There's 144 sts. Knit. Knit. Knit. Urg... getting tough here. Stitch #10.. crud. This is too tight. Let's try again..

Second Attempt
Okay. Cast on 144 stitches with Judy Becker's Magic Cast on and do it LOOSELY, you ninny. Hum-de-hum. This is a lot of stitches. Okay. This still seems pretty tight. Doesn't Cat Bordhi like to work on two circs or something. I think I'm going to begin to hate DPNs at this rate. Knit. Knit. Kniting. Too. Tight... what exactly am I doing here? Knit 5 rows and turn inside out then join together and decrease a bunch of stitches. Hmm. It didn't LOOK like a purled cuff in the picture. (Picture me frowning at the example picture here). No. That's not a Cobblestone Cuff by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, there's a little purl ridge at the top, but it's clearly knit, and there are CLEARLY no decreases.. blast it. rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiipppppppppp

Third Attempt
Okay. Where's my book? Nevermind. I can remember. I've done this twice now. CLEARLY I need to cast on my final number of stitches (63). That'll be 27 for the sole, and 33 for the instep. Provisional cast on with the crochet hook. Hook. Hook. Hook. Isn't this a pretty green? Hook. Hook. Hook. Okay. Knit those in my nice red yarn. Join in the round. Knit Knit Knit... pretty pretty. Okay. There's three rows, we'll just purl one row for that ridge in the pictures and then maybe knit four to make sure it lays flat against my leg. Wow. This red yarn is gorgeous. Knit stitches from my needles with the provisional cast on. Great. Looks awesome. Start lace and remember it's a nine stitch repeat.. here we go. Wait. 9*7=63 .... 27+33=60. CRUD. Okay. I'll just.. skip a couple of the lace decreases until I have the right number. There we go!

Knit. Knit. Knit. Ugh. I really don't like this lace. I want symmetrically paired decreases, not this leaning-one-way nonsense. (glaring) rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiippppppp

Fourth Attempt
Alright. This isn't working. Where's my graph paper? (Much math and planning ensues wherein I completely redesign the lace pattern into a standard leaf-lace AND figure out how to manage the increases in it at the ankle AND match gauge and stitch count and row counts to match Cat's pattern within one to two stitches/rows at any important point.) Ah-ha! That's a workable pattern.

Provisional crochet cast on 64 stitches (for 8 repeats of an 8-stitch lace pattern). Knit 3 rounds. P2tog+yo around. Knit three rounds. Join two parts and start lace. Oh, this is really pretty. The picot edge looks positively firey in this red yarn. What a great idea! And this lace is working. I like it much better. Hmm. It looks a little bigger than I thought. I'll just finish this repeat.. Wow. That looks like it'll be baggy. But.. socks always look different while you're working. Maybe I'll just slip it over my foot and.. blast it. It's probably an inch too big! But I checked my gauge! Twice. Sure, it was on an old sock but.. dagnabit, it's the same yarn and the same needles and ought to be close enough to gauge. Where's my ruler and... You must be kidding me. 7sts/in? I'm supposed to be getting 8.5 sts/in!!

*RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

Current Status
I have yarn in a ball. I have a good idea. Now I need to sit back down with my proper gauge (and maybe knit a swatch again to make sure, dagnabit) and recalculate my master numbers and totally toss Cat's "Veil of Leaves" to the wind and redesign my "Veil of Flames" from the master Cedar pattern.

At least I'm getting better at this. I think.