Yesterday was so NOT my day for knitting. After finishing my Monkey socks (pictured), I was feeling pretty confident about my knitting prowess and thought I could cast on just about anything.

So, I decided to cast on for this vest. And I was psyched — my first “big” project!

My local yarn shop has had a sample of this vest on display for quite some time, and every time I go in, I’d admired it. Then when I was there on Saturday, Toni had just finished her version of the vest. After seeing hers (which was so perfect!), I decided I needed to knit this vest.

I bought 5 skeins of Cascade Nikki in Chocolate Twist for it. I came home, wound the yarn into lovely little cakes, and started knit-knit-knitting along on size 10.5 needles as recommended in the pattern.

It was really starting to look quite lovely:

I knit quite a bit more, joining the second ball of yarn after the first was used up, and decreasing to knit the back of the vest. I’m not sure what finally made me stop halfway through that second ball of yarn, but it suddenly occurred to me that I’d never checked my gauge. And I’d substituted yarn. And this vest was looking awfully small, despite the fact that it was ribbed and would stretch.

I grabbed my measuring tape. The pattern specified that I should be shooting for 12 stitches in 4-inches. I had something like 18 stitches in 4-inches. *headdesk*

I’m thinking I may pick up some Cascade 220 in a solid chocolate brown today, and knit it together with the Nikki to try and balance out the thick-and-thin nature of that yarn. I think it might make it a little easier to get gauge. (Or I may be completely wrong… I don’t know.)

Anyway, I abandoned my vest project temporarily and decided to work on knitting the second sock to the pair I’m knitting for sock club.

The first sock of the pair (pictured to the right) turned out quite lovely). The yarn is Schaefer Anne, a lovely yarn made from 60% merino wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon. (Keep that mohair part in mind.)

I love this yarn. I love it so much that since I knit that first sock, I bought two more hanks of this same yarn in different colorways. It’s soft and fuzzy and feels amazing on your feet.

I’d cast on the toe to the second sock a week or so ago, but I’d abandoned it when I got into working on the Money sock. I decided to get back to it tonight. The next direction on the pattern was to snug up the stitches where you’d done the figure-8 cast on. Okey dokey.

I started working across the toe, snugging up the stitches. Now, mohair, lovely as it may be, loves to stick to itself. So of course snugging up those stitches got a little difficult at times. But I’d tug and work the yarn back and forth a bit and eventually it would snug up and I’d move on to the next stitch. At some point halfway across the toe, I hit a particularly stubborn stitch. I tugged gently. I picked at it a bit. I tugged some more. Finally I yanked…

Um. Crap. That certainly wasn’t what I’d intended.

There’s really no salvaging it, and being that I’ve only just started this sock and I have more than enough yarn still on the ball, I think I’ll just start over. But not right now.

So that was yesterday’s knitting. A mess.

I’m planning on going to knit-night at the local yarn shop here tonight. Maybe I’ll pick up that Cascade 220 to see what I can do with my vest. In the meantime, I’ve decided to start an entirely new project that hopefully won’t give me quite as much trouble. Heh.

So I started a pair of socks for my grandma. I’m using the Pomatomus pattern by Cookie A. (’cause her Monkey socks rocked) and I’m using the Paca Peds sock yarn that I got a couple days ago. I’m hoping they’ll be super cozy and warm.

So I’m knitting while listening to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off on audiobook and when that’s over I’m going to start listening to The Friday Night Knitting Club. (Yay Audible!)

Let’s hope today’s knitting is more successful than yesterday’s…