Never knit after surgery...and buy socks at the store!

So I had my gallbladder out last week, which turned out to be no fun at all. I'm feeling mostly back to normal but my brain function is low, which is extending the extended sock drama I've been dealing with.

Backing up a second...I made a pair of socks (the blue striped ones out of KnitPicks Parade) from the top down a few months ago. One came out a bit too baggy and after repeated washings the ribbed top was totally stretched out.

I wanted to rip it out backwards, from the cast-on edge, decrease the number of stitches and knit it back up to the top and bind it off. I asked some experts if it was even possible to knit backwards. They said, "Huh?"

Bravely deciding to give it a shot, I picked up all the stitches halfway down, then started from the cast-on edge. Got one row unpicked and realized it wasn't going to frog from that direction.

So I went down to a row or two above the stitches I'd picked up and snipped the yarn, then carefully undid the row so the foot of the sock and the ankle of the sock were separated.

I frogged the entire ankle of the sock and balled that yarn, then reattached the right end to the tail left above the needles where I'd cut the yarn (that's why you have to do it a row or two above the needles.)

I knit it back upward and it looked like it was that way all along--no line where I began or anything. I guess knitting goes both ways.

So it looked pretty nice...but then at the top I didn't do enough ribbing. Couldn't STAND that the socks didn't match at the top, so I now have to let every other stitch run down, pick it up in purl all the way to the top, and OH HECK.

I'm buying socks from the store from now on.