utter idiocy

So it is late on Friday night--at least, getting towards what I consider late--and I am at the office. My code keeps crashing and I'm mad. But I had a post prepared, all about how I went through last weekend in that uncomfrotable tweeny state that occurs when I don't have an obsessive knitting project. Especially not an obsessive knitting project that can be worked on in dark lecture halls. Because this week I had a lot of lectures, and the idea of wasting all the knitting time was getting to me. I made several false sock starts, and finally decided to try "Evening Stockings for a Young Lady" from Vintage Socks. At last, my project karma started working. I did the ribbing, white merino looking very nice, pleasure to work with, easy to carry around. I started the lace pattern, finding it blissfully simple to memorize. All set for lectures!

I had a whopping three extra lectures here this week. Jared Diamond was visiting the area. He is widely discussed and it was highly recommended that we attend. No problem! I've got my sock. I knit through the first lecture serenely and started the calf decreases. This is a long sock, about 12" long, so there's lots of round and round. I knit through the second lecture, completing most of the calf decreases. Happiness. This afternoon, I knit through the third lecture and noticed that my ball of yarn was getting decidedly squishy. Also the sock--or stocking? seemed a little long, but then I have short legs, so quite possibly a normal mid-calf would seem long on me. I wasn't worried.

I got back to the office and started to seriously try to pull apart some nasty code, and during pauses (while things get retrieved from a database--you don't want to know) I decided I could be extra efficient and work on my sock. Getting up to the heel flap would be a great way to round out a productive week. Just think, if I could knit a sock a week, I could have six pairs by summer! I did the final calf decrease and read ahead a little bit to figure out how far to knit until the all important Heel Turning event. Blah blah blah, there should be 20 pattern repeats before starting the heel.

Huh. Oh yeah? I already have 25. Hah! Says I to myself. This is the first time I have found a mistake in a Nancy Bush pattern. Because, says I to myself, I followed the instructions to the letter and there is no way you could end up with 20 5-row pattern repeats unless you are on crack or can't add. There's got to be at least, like, 24 or so. Then I tried the sock on and friends, it goes all the way up my calf. Already bumping up against the knee joint. Which is odd, because most sock patterns as written are for kind of short socks, if you know what I mean. Still confident, I re-read the pattern to see if I could figure out where the author made a mistake. (Go ahead, laugh; we all know she writes the best sock patterns out there. Who am I! Just another lousy knitter.) There is a line near the beginning which says

"Work in patts as established until 14 rnds of openwork patt have been completed...."

Abundantly clear. Obviously. That's 14 ROUNDS, as in rows, as in only ONCE around the sock for each of those 14 "rnds". You know what I did? I did 14 REPEATS, as in 14 5-row repeats, as in a whole SEVENTY rows where she wrote 14. No wonder my sock is long.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with my version of the sock. It's just... ample, in the length direction. Serves me right for thinking I could accomplish something useful in a darkened lecture hall. Wouldn't life be so much more pleasant if we didn't have to multitask to fit in the things we love?

Comments

[June]

Oh dear! Any really tall friends? Or... Christmas stocking? I know Diana will give you moral support if you decide to frog it.

[diana]

Frog it! :)