*sigh* gauge really matters...

I'm so frustrated here! Can I get a Hallelujah from the choir somewhere? Here I was on Thursday..so out of my mind excited that I had figured out how to make socks that actually fit me! Check it out..I got one sock done, and while I was working on the 2nd sock...I'm wearing the first one out in the sun...heat pffft....no biggie...I was stylin'...and prancing all over the place...like my freakin' foot was on some sort of red carpet on premiere night.

And it doesn't stop there...I pull out the cell phone and snap some more to send off to my daughter. "Look at what your Mom can do!" I can hear her eyes rolling now..oh boy she's now adding socks to her obsession....

See the ankle there on the last shot? See how nice it looks, all prim and proper...and pretty...see how I learned from reading of so many other people..nope, no 2nd sock syndrome here, I tell you...I couldn't wait to test these puppies out! I was going to have SOCKS! I tell you.

I stayed up all night long until 4:03am to finish weaving in the last of the ends of the socks so I could wear those long awaited prized possessions. I laid down for a bit to take a nap in my socks, until 6:35am before taking pictures of my socks to send over the phone to show my daughter. After all, she's close to finals and working on her papers. It wouldn't be a 'good mommy' thing to have woken her up at 4am to show her my socks. After all, her friends are the knitters...not her. *sigh* I don't think she would have 'gotten' it.

Later on, I took a nap with the Birk's on with the socks (remember the whole reason I bought the Birk's? Ok, so I can't wear regular shoes, but Birk's are like what the COOL kids wear with their hand knitted socks. Right?) Now, those of you sly ones, will see the big project that I've been working on lately, which is why it's been so quiet in the posting department lately....but back to the saga here...[you DO know there's a saga here...right??????????? ya..cue the music...]

Because after 3 nights of wearing the socks at bedtime to keep my freezing tootsies warm...they look like this.....

Totally stretched out..and saggy...and it was only AFTER wearing them for a couple of days around the house...on carpet..NOT outside....that I measured the *&(**%&% gauge...the pattern said 26 sts for 4"/10 cm...what are mine? 20.

ya...20! freakin' stitches in the stockinette section. They stretched..and I never knit up a gauge swatch in the beginning.

So, I'm asking you all of you Kings and Queens of Sockdom...those Royalty of Knitted Wiseness...what did I do wrong? Was it not to gauge in the beginning, or did they just stretch that much! They started off looking so good, and fitting so snugly. Just the way I wanted them to. But then....ulg.

Back to the drawing board.

Maybe I'll never be a sock knitter.

Just don't tell my Mother. She's been buying me sock yarn so I could make myself some pretty socks. And she keeps asking me how they're coming along.

I went back to hat knitting today. I KNOW how to do that! Besides, AC4C is sending things down to the Naval Hospital this month in San Diego. That will fit someone.

No matter how crappy my socks turned out.