I’ve been knitting along on the second Conwy sock every evening before dinner. Honest. Truly. Not that you could tell.

I know. You say, “Laura, it’s bigger; I see progress.” Ah, but what you don’t see is a finished second sock, and with the number of hours I’ve been knitting on this foul thing, you should.

Let’s go back a bit, shall we?

First off, let me reassure you of a couple things. What follows is not a fault of either the pattern or the yarn. Both are blame-free. Nope. It’s all me.

I knit up the heel flap, that went fine. Then I picked up the gusset stitches. Not once, but twice, as I made an error the first time, didn’t get enough stitches, so ripped it back, knit some more rows in the heel flap, then picked up the gusset stitches for the second time. Notice a step missing? I didn’t at first, either. Didn’t notice until I’d knit another round, and wondered where the heel was. That’s right. I’d forgotten to turn the heel. Out came the gusset stitches. Again.

I also had to rip out the extra rows that I’d knit on the heel flap. It was the right length in the first place.

Okay. That’s done. Flap? Check. Heel? Check. Correct number of gusset stitches? Check. Okay. Let’s do some decrease rows. Gotcha. Did that, knit happily along until the foot was about to where it is now. Then I noticed that I had too many stitches on the needles. That’s right. I didn’t decrease enough at the gussets. You can see what happened next, right? Yup. You got it. Rrrriiiiiiiippppp. Sigh.

It took me two more evenings of knitting to get back to this spot. All the yarn I ripped out is safely knit up again.

Maybe this evening I can actually make some real progress.

Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, some time in the wee hours this morning, I pulled out my new KnitPicks size 3 circulars, and swatched for Isabella.

More bad news. I’m going to have to go down at least one needle size to get gauge. I know this yarn will do it. The old sweater I ripped out was the right gauge. I must have knit it on smaller needles, though.

The best part? Though I have some size 2 needles, they’re either double pointed, or straights. I can’t knit with straight needles any more, they make my carpal tunnel flare up something fierce. And the size 1s, which I’m afraid I may have to use, I do have in circulars, but the cable’s so stiff that they’re horrible to use, worse than the hated Susan Bates needles. Sigh. I wonder if I can sell more of that fabric to earn money for another trip to KnitPicks for cheap needles?

This is where I wish I was a tight knitter, instead of a loose one, so I could jump up to size 6 needles, like Kate. I have size 6 circulars.

Maybe I should give up on this project for now and knit something else. I do have some lovely navy Rowan that’s begging to be knit up…

Let’s see if we can end this on a better note, shall we? Have you looked at the Harlot’s blog today? She started a new sweater. This sweater. But she’ll be making modifications on it based on Vanessa’s changes. Definitely the same sweater, but I love Vanessa’s version. It’s ever so much better than Rowan’s original. Vanessa’s I’d consider making myself. Rowan’s? Never.