First Slipper Sock on Mid-Gauge Knitting Machine

 Yesterday morning I woke up early and had a fair amount of energy having only awakened once during the night!  So nice!  So I went to town on quite a few projects, including clearing off the work table. Again!  When the table jobs were done I went to the KX-350 knitting machine and attempted Anna Haferman's Slipper Sock.

This is what it looked like when it was done.  If you follow the pattern precisely and have no problems, it will not look like this.  You will notice that the toe is rather wonky and very short.  It should not have been. Also you can see the red marker where the dropped stitch is collected...

The problem with knitting the toe was that as I started it (short-row toe) I failed to put weights on the middle part.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, those middle stitches leaped off the needles.  Now, this is NOT what you want to have happen!  Being resourceful, and somewhat confident, I started picking up the stitches and returning them to the needles.  I was somewhat successful, but only somewhat!  They looked pretty good BUT #1--I had dropped a stitch and did not notice, and #2--I could not remember where I had been in the short-rowing sequence.  

Well, since I was now somewhat stressed, I decided to go ahead as if I had finished the toe. I finished knitting the top of the sock (this sock is started at the back of the ankle with 16 rows of mock ribbing in a tighter gauge than the sock itself, worked past the ankle to the short-row heel, then the foot stitches, short-row toe, then the top of the foot and ankle stitches and concluding with another mock rib then the sides are mattress-stitched together) and realized I did not know how to knit the mock ribbing from the bottom up. I had to stop and watch Anna's video again. It seemed straightforward so I gave it a try.  Seeming to be done, I sewed the sock off the machine and sat down to mattress stitch the sides.  By this time I was REALLY stressed because it was getting close to the time I needed to leave for another ministering route visiting trip. I had been working for seven hours on the various projects and I just wanted this one done, so I called it good, even though it was not even mildly good.

Well, you can see the mess I made of it BUT may I say I did learn a lot!  Also, this slipper sock will not fit my big toe!  Sad. I will re-work the numbers and try again.  If it turns out I don't have enough yarn, there is sock I can rip out to re-use that yarn!  It may be a few days before I get to the knitting machine again.  With all good luck, next week some time.