http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Sigh…there’s something wrong with the blanket. I was having so much fun with it, whipping through and loving the way it grows…but then i’d be off by one stitch…and one stitch off would mess up the pattern. So i took out a bunch of rows trying to figure out where the mistake was. I thought i found it, knit up a few rows again but it still was off. So i took out MORE rows, started again, and it was slightly off! Took out more rows again and was very careful to make sure everything was right on the row i ripped down to….counted, double counted, checked everything twice……everything seemed perfect so with a gusto i started up again and BAM! ONE STITCH OFF!!! On row 47! Could it be a mistake in the pattern? I want to work on it so badly, but i’m getting more and more frustrated. 

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

The sock book i ordered online STILL is not here and i haven’t really had the time to go on youtube and watch the video Amy recommended so in the meantime i’ve started THIS! it’s a Radiating Star blanket. It’s my mother-in-law’s Christmas present…a little late but she’s ok with that. Can you believe i started this thing on 4 double pointed needles??? You start in the center and work your way out, eventually switching to circular needles. It took me a couple of DAYS just to figure out how to get the first row done….even the lady at the yarn store couldn’t do it! But i am nothing if not persistant…and eventually i figured it out! Pretty neat huh? 

Ok, i know that hundreds of you,…nay, thousands, perhaps…..have been waiting with breaths held to see the heel flap i have worked so hard on. And i dare not disappoint:

TADAHHHH!!!!    The heel flap was easy. But turning the heel was a bit more

 complicated….

This, my friends, is a heel turn and it would not have been hard…SHOULD NOT have been hard….but the woman who wrote the sock directions had it in for me. It took me 3 tries on practice yarn before i gave up and decided i needed help. So i went to Lucy, knitter savant, and she tried to figure it out…she even made her own sam

ple at home and she said it took her 3 tries but she eventually got it right. She brought it in to work to show me and i went home and tried 2 more times and FINALLY figured it out. It was not me being thick….it was that sneak of a sock pattern writer. Well i showed her!

But now, alas, i am stuck again. I’m supposed to do “the gusset” next. Now, i had no idea what a “gusset” was and the pattern writer did not feel the need to embellish, so finally i looked it up online and found a picture

So now i see what the gusset is but i can’t figure out how to make it happen!! I think the pattern lady is trying to sound smart. Even Lucy could not figure out how to start the gusset after reading the directions with me over and over. Maybe i should have started my first sock with an intermediate pattern….this could be my fault. But seriously, the woman didn’t even feel the need to explain what a gusset was, much less make any sense in her directions on how to make it! So once again i am at a standstill. I did order a Knitting Socks book off Barnes and Noble.com but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’m hoping that will clear things up. I could just quit this sock and start another, easier sock…..but now i am angry. I WILL make this sock. Now it’s personal. 

I have a feeling the lady at the little local yarn shop will be getting another “help” visit from me this weekend….this time i may have to buy something so she doesn’t think i’m just using her. 

Oh yeah, and have i mentioned that this sock is looking a little tight? Lucy’s not so sure it will fit a human foot. This sock is going to kill me.