Mocked by the Gauge Gods

So, I've been trying to make up a Jayne Cobb hat for a friend of mine (though she doesn't know it yet). The thing is, I'm poor, so I decided to use KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Tomato, Carrot and Daffodil. But the gauge was all wrong - the pattern is for bulky, I was using worsted.

So... I guessed. Wrong.

So I frogged.

I guessed again. Wrong.

I frogged again.

This time, I decided to try to follow the pattern. I would double up my worsted yarn, and see where that got me. Except the pattern calls for US10.5 needles, and I don't have dpns in that size. But I do have US11s.

So I cast on fewer stitches to make up for the larger needles. Actually finished the hat portion, too, before I finally accepted that no, it was too small.

sigh.

So, I frogged again. Now, I have written down all the changes I think I need to make (because of course, while I had the stupid thing knitted up this last time, did I actually measure to see what gauge I was coming up with? HA! Why would I do such a nutty thing? For shame.), and so am now just getting up the nerve to try again.

Did I mention that I'm kind of hoping to have this hat done so I can send it along with a friend to give to the ultimate recipient at GenCon this coming weekend?

At least it's bulky and just a hat, so should only take so long.

As a result, of course, my socks have languished. I wonder why I've been so concerned about Second Sock Syndrome when really, I can't even seem to finish the first sock of a pair.

Also, the gift-giving season is soon to be upon us, and well... man, I've got a lot of knitting to do. Not to mention knitting up Christmas stockings and winter hats for the kids.

Oh, and I think I'm going to just be giving up on finding them baby shoes that don't suck, and instead knitting my own from this slipper-boot pattern by Ann Norling. My LYS has little leather soles to attach to things such as these, so I figure something like that would at least get them through until there's snow on the ground.

Of course, this is Wisconsin. We could have snow on the ground by Columbus Day. But still. Considering the children are huge and have giant feet, it's been really difficult finding shoes for them that will accommodate Ben's "bread feet" and his continued propensity to curl his feet like a newborn. And man, I looked at kid's shoes the other day. I swear, the shoes out there for little toddler boys? Manlier than my husband's shoes. By a lot. Since heaven forbid anyone mistake them for being girls (snort!), apparently I'm expected to dress them up in freakin' lumberjack boots.

One, I expect to raise my children much more Screaming Greenie than to wind up with careers in the logging industry, unless they're part of some sustainable harvesting outfit. Two, if they do somehow embark on logging careers before the age of 2, they better hide their paychecks from me very carefully or I'm going to start making them buy their own Cheerios.