In need of advice, or maybe just encouragement

Let's first talk about dp ladders from hell. They look SO big to me. Poo.

Ladders happen with dp right? They just do. No matter how hard you tug at the yarn between the switch, they just happen. Do they ever correct themselves? I've never really asked anyone I've knitted socks for. Besides the people I have knitted socks for are not knitters, and most certainly they would look at me as though I had lost my mind talking about the ladder in the garage.

Second, how important is it to count rows? I know that tension and gauge can often vary slightly from day to day, and mood to mood. I've always just measured. I'm sure my inner perfectionist is just having a hay day with my brain. Poking at the little worrier child in my head.

I'm using this cast on for my toe. I like it. It's less likely to need tightening. Although the first stitch seems to always be loose. On the first sock I just tightened it and left the little loop it left, the second sock I tightened and then knit it with another knit stitch. This I think may have left a tiny hole, so I may have to rethink my thoughts about that loose first stitch. I may just try the Knitty version of the figure 8 again. It's been so long I really don't remember.

On a side note...I'm so ready for it to be Friday.

It's always seems like I get home at night and all I want to do is sit down, read some blogs, and go to bed. It's not that I forget to take the pictures, I just seem to run out of time.

Today I had a first. I took back sock yarn to an LYS. I'd link you to their website but String, A Knitting Boutique seems to have had it deleted. I don't know what is going on there, but it remains at my least favorite. I'm grateful that they took back the 2 skeins I had. One was a Fortissma, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't convince myself that the cotton/wool/nylon blend was going to work with the wool/poly blend of the Opal skein I have to go with it. So I ordered a solid Opal skein instead, and opted to take this one back. I also took back a skein of Noro, not because I didn't like it, but I had 2 of them. I decided I only needed one. Instead for their store credit, I picked up Jitterbug and Koigu. A much better idea in my stash.

I'm still not crazy about this store. I went up to the counter and let the person at the register know I wanted to do a return, she informed me of the store credit thing. I said that was fine and I just thought I'd pick out my new selections now. She nosed through my bag and picked out the solid color Fortissma and said, "Are you sure you bought this here?" I replied, "Yes, here's my receipt." sigh. For that reason alone I don't think I'd really want to be a shop keeper. Maybe I'm a crappy customer having the expectation that you ought to have a basic idea of what is in your store.

I also went to Knitty Cat. Ann has Flat Feet in bright colors. She says she's going to order more. Yay, because the stuff she had, I don't think will last through the weekend. I hope she gets in some of the Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn too when it comes out. She said she'd ask her rep. I went for Flat Feet and a Jitterbug followed me home.

The Jitterbug has so many colors in it. It's like a crayon box that tastifully threw up.

I also came to the conclusion today that I need to have yarn at my desk...on my desk as a display. For some reason it kind of just makes me feel good.