Lace--an exercise in patience

I really didn't expect to screw up this fast.

A bunch of us had the lovely and talented ruthee cast on our Super Spirals on Saturday. I'd like to know how the writer of this pattern manages to start a circular beginning on size 10 dpns without shoving a needle through her own eye in frustration. So ruthee gets me started, I knit a bit on Saturday afternoon, but when I take it out on Sunday and compare the hash marks I've made (to count rows) to the knitting, something doesn't feel right. I count stitches on one section and then another, and sure enough, there's a discrepancy. Crap. Because it's lace knitting, I can't quite tell yet what I've done wrong, there's no pattern in the knitting to speak of yet, to the untrained eye. So for grins, I count each section and in true Melanie fashion, the sections range from 9 to 14 stitches. WTF!!! After staring at it for quite a bit of time in bafflement as to how this could've happened and wondering what the hell I'm going to do, I decide to get 'em all back to even--I increase and decrease until I'm back to 10 stitches per section. Then I bury it deep in my bag and do a couple of rows of Tasha.

But I know this won't do. I'm frogging it tonight and buying size 8s. Just don't know if I'll be able to start the darn thing over again without help, which would mean waiting til KB on Thursday or begging ruthee for a smidgen of quality time after work between now and then. I know having the smaller needles will help a bit, but it's definitely going to be that exercise in patience mentioned above.

Tasha is a nice looking bag from Knitty, I just started her ribbed bottom this past weekend. I'm knitting the body in a double strand of Blue Mist Wool Ease, and as the yarn depletes I'll decide where to put the Heather Rose trim; probably at least in the strap and top cable on the body. I have plenty of both, so I think I'll do the whole body in the blue. I'm glad I started it; it's nice to have a new, easy project on the side for when the lace makes me want to stab something with my needles.