Uh oh

Help me out here.  Pattern for Ryan's hat tells me that with 108 stitches on my needles, to increase as follows: "[(K4, m1) 6 times, k3, m1] around. 136 sts (34 sts on each needle)"  I read that as k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, then k3, m1 the rest of the way around.

That gives you something like 142 stitches.  (4x6 = 24.  108-24 = 84.  So, over the remaining 84 stitches, you increase every three stitches, for a total of 28 increased.   The math, it does not add up.)  And I've sat here, counting off stitches, making notes.  And really, I don't see how this is supposed to work.

Am I supposed to k4, m1 all the way around the hat?  That'll give me 135 stitches.  I need 136, for a repeats of a 17 stitch pattern.  k4, m1 most of the way around, with one or two k3, m1 seems to be my best bet.

I could be reading this completely the wrong way, I'm aware of that.  And as I think of different ways to check my math, I keep coming up with different numbers and so forth.  (And to think, I took calc and advanced linear algebra for FUN.  And did well in those classes!)

Tonight, I shall solve this problem.

Since I don't seem to be able to NOT have a sock on the needles, I cast on in Opal's Dreamcatcher, color 1235, a bunch of blues with short runs of white.  I'm trying toe up socks this time, using Judy's Magic Cast On from Knitty.com.  I started with 20 stitches and then remembered, I have wide feet.  So I ripped it all out and started again with 40 stitches.  Haven't gotten far enough yet to know if that'll work, but that's ok.  This pair of socks is for me, and thus, does not count.

Though, I really need to get a few more sets of DPNs or attempt socks with circular needles.

And since I never managed to post a picture of the finished Lorna's Laces socks, here ya go:

Lesson learned? It is hard to take good pictures of your own feet. But, I am very happy with the socks.

Used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, color 201, Yellowstone.
Made up my own pattern of 2x2 rib, garter stitch shortrow heel, stockinette foot, and normal shortrow toe. They didn't take that long to knit, I know I wore them out the same night I finished them, some Thursday evening, about Oct. 19th.

long time, no post

So, I remember having this blog, see...

A few excuses for the (major) lack of updates:

I got sick. Twice. In less than a month. It was fun, I swear! Nothing quite like going to bed ok and waking up with a really sore throat, no voice, and post-nasal drip. (The last one convinced me that I didn't have any really weird sleep-walking accidents to cause the other two.) Since then, the throat has gotten worse, I've had massive pressure in my ears, and no runny nose or cough. Weirdest disease ever. I cheered on Saturday morning when I started coughing and was even happier today when I had to blow my nose. My voice is also starting to come back. And cause my body really hates me, I ended up with a UTI as well. The fun just never stops, does it?

Football games. Screaming as loud as possible for 25 seconds (or more) straight can really kill your voice. And heading to the stadium at 5pm only to get home around midnight tends to take a junk of time out of the day. However, we only lost one of the last two home games and I think most of us saw that one coming.

Housing stress. Rent next year goes up $100 a person, for a total of $520. TOTALLY not worth it and also, want to get away from the Extra Roommate (more details later). One of my roommates isn't sure when he'll be here next year, since he's looking to take a semester off for an internship/co-op, but that throws ANOTHER kink in the whole "ok, 3 bedroom place then" plan. 2 bedrooms aren't in the price range, so I ended up applying for an efficiency. We shall see how living completely alone my senior year when a large number of my friends, including my boyfriend, have graduated works out. Yay? I'll find out in December which place I got, IF I got a place. But there was much panicking on my part as time ticked away and other people figured out what they wanted to do AND HANDED IN THEIR APPLICATIONS BEFORE ME. Um, no, not bitter about that AT ALL.

Roommate stress.  Oh, boy, was this a BIG one. Female roommate's boyfriend is always. here. He spends every night here, he comes back here after class. And the two of them just kinda ... stopped hanging out with the rest of us and talking to the rest of us unless they needed something and stuff like that. It got awkward, I got pissed. I wrote a letter, taped it to her door, and the whole thing blew up in my face. She was a) pissed about the letter, b) pissed that I was upset about the whole thing in the first place, c) apparently my lord and master, since she told me that I WOULD NOT bring up the topic again, WOULD NOT speak to her until I had "a civil tongue in my mouth", and that he WOULD spend nights here, I WOULD get used to brushing my teeth around him every morning, and so forth. Needless to say, that didn't sit very well with me. At all. I pretty much had a nervous break down while waiting for a chance to (calmly) confront her about it and had to retreat to TheBoyfriend's place for an afternoon/evening. His roommates were QUITE confused with the fact that I spend 6 hours on the floor in the living room, reading Tennyson. However, we had an apartment meeting, she apologized, I apologized, and her boyfriend isn't here QUITE so much and they're now actually cleaning the bathroom. Finally. I'm still a bit angry about the whole thing (she said she "didn't think I was actually that upset about the whole thing" even though I started the letter by saying "I'm really upset with this situation." Bitch) but am able to at least live with her, so things are better.

Fed Ex. Oh, do I hate Fed Ex. Well, I really like two people, since they were actually polite and tried to help me. But, mom bought me an iPod for my birthday and Fed Ex couldn't a) tell me when it would be delivered so I could attempt to be home to sign for it, b) accept that I did NOT want to pre-sign and have them leave it at my door as then my iPod could just walk off randomly with some nice stranger and I'd be able to do NOTHING about it, or c) let me pick it up at a Fed Ex store within two hours of where I live. (No, serious about that. I would have had to drive two hours to pick it up.) When I called to ask what I could do, the one girl said "No" to my every suggestion and then asked "Ok then?" I said "no, but apparently that doesn't seem to bother you much, so I guess I might as well just hang up and get used to the idea that customer service is just a myth." She said "Have a nice day then" and hung up. Somehow, the driver ended up with my cell phone number, called and asked when I would be home, and made a special trip back to my part of town just for me. So, I got my iPod, thanks to an awesome Fed Ex driver.

Computer troubles. iTunes would cause my computer to crash. While I've fixed that, I still have songs that won't transfer to my iPod. OF COURSE those are the songs I want to listen to and/or have stuck in my head. Then my graphic card driver went and with it, my screen. Hard to fix the problem when you can't SEE anything. I finally resorted to randomly pushing keys when booting up and on the third try, that did the trick.

And um, all of the above kinda happened RIGHT AROUND THE SAME TIME. I freaked, many times; cried, many times, and I'm sure all the stress had a hand in getting me sick.  

I finished the Lorna's Lace's socks, one hank did BOTH socks with a little bit left over. Next time, I'll knit a few more rows before starting the heels, this are a little low. If my mom likes the color, I'll knit her a pair, the remaining yarn SHOULD work since her feet are smaller than mine.

Tina's sock was completely frogged when she was here for my birthday. Since then, I've knit back to where I started to rip, using a k3,p1 rib, short row heel, and continuing the ribbing on the top of the foot. Looks pretty good and is a little loose on me, so I'm hoping that they'll fit her. If not, I'm telling her to get smaller feet.

I want to learn Fair Isle, cause apparently I don't have enough things keeping me awake at night. Ryan wants a hat and really likes the look of this. I'm hoping I can use the pattern and fudge numbers and stuff enough to knit it using Paton's Classic Merino. Otherwise, I'm not sure if Ryan will be able to afford it and if I'll finish it in time for him to actually wear it this year.

Russian roulette

Ugh.

The internet, it does not like me. Or my roommates. I'm not sure what we've done to anger the internet god(s), but something needs to give. So far, I've talked to tech support for the modem, return the old modem and picked up a new one, talked to India via Linksys and attempted to set up the router, and reset the router about 7 million times.

Reseting the router works for about 20 minutes or so. The worse part is that I HAVE a connection, I just can't DO anything with it. Grr. Angry. And also, sore. I have a bad habit of punching myself to get anger out. (Hey, it means I'll get my security deposit back later. And less likely to break a bone or something.)

So, I have about 15 minutes to type up this entry before I have to take a shower and run over to TheUrmily's for Studio 60. And then home and to bed and ignoring the internet, cause it doesn't want to play nice.

(I've spent way too much time dealing with this problem.)

So... Tina visited yesterday. At which point, I discovered that her feet are a LOT bigger than mine. To the point that the sock I was knitting for her? It didn't fit. So I frogged the whole thing and have decided to try knitting it toe-up. Not sure how that's gonna work, cause I might have increased too many stitches to make sure that the new sock fits. Went from 88 stitches to 92 and it seems a little... big. I guess we'll see. Worst come to worst, I can tink a bit of the short-row toe and make it fit, I think. We'll see. Experimental knitting, such fun!

I finished the first of the Lorna's Laces sock. Need to take pictures, but don't want to waste the time I have with an internet connection. Later, I promise. It fits nicely, though it might be a little short at the ankle... I'm thinking about picking up and knitting a few more rounds of ribbing at the ankle, to see if that helps the problem. Other than that, love it.

And Sizzle is still neglected... Poor Sizzle. I promise I'll do something with you soon. Before I start another project. Maybe. We'll see.

So, 21st birthday is tomorrow. I plan on watching the season premiere of Gilmore Girls and doing homework and going to be early. I live such an exciting life.

Clearly, I blog when I am avoiding going to bed as well.

Clearly, I am not always completely right in the head. I blame large amounts of Victorian Lit.

So, socks for Tina:


They are coming along, slowly but surely.

This side of the heel turned out very nicely, matched the stripes up and all. (And I did that by accident. There's no way I could have planned that, minus counting how many stitches each stripe tends to take place over, figuring how much yarn is used in a wrap and turn and then calculating how many stitches I could knit with each color to make the stripes run. But that, my friend, would take WAY too much work and effort and math.

That's a rather difficult section of sock to photograph clearly - the sock did not want to lay flat. I think I messed up the proportions of a short row heel, so yeah. Is there a formula for that? I'm sure there is.

And then... this side, not so much with the matchy-matchy. Personally, I'm at the point where I don't care. And also, they will be on her feet. In shoes. And if people are staring at her heels THAT closely, maybe they have other issues? Like a foot fetish?


And the Lorna's Laces: