Third Time's the Charm

I've been knitting on a pair of brown socks and learning my new Knit Companion app for the iPad. I don't know which has been more frustrating.

I started the sock, which said "Cast on 72 sts" with 16 sts each on 4 needles. That does not equal 72, as I found out after doing the cuff. The leg pattern didn't fit the stitches on the needles. RRIIP!! I started again with 18 sts on each needle and the pattern worked.

As I got to the heel, I had to knit the heel flap twice. The second time I followed the pattern except for length. I shortened it to fit the target foot. The more I worked, the more it became obvious that the sock was too big and I was running out of yarn.

Started again with 16 sts per needle and revised the pattern to fit. I should have enough yarn to finish. I would have had to start over no matter what yarn I used, so I reused the same yarn.

I have Knit Companion tamed for the moment. I scanned the instructions out of a book and turned them into a pdf. This was saved in Dropbox, where it can easily be downloaded into the program. I cropped the charts as needed so that they are separate pieces. I then added smart counters that mark which row I'm on and how many times I need to repeat. A tap of the finger moves the marker up a row, and when I reach the op of the chart, it goes back to row 1. It even has a line marker where I switch needles in the middle of the chart.

I had a yellow line on row 1, that I was able to remove. I've figured out how to easily reset the counters after the sock reverted to a ball of yarn. The sock will go faster on fewer stitches.

Ideally, everything goes right the first time. At least I don't have an impending deadline for the socks.