Pea Pod from Hell

I thought it was just me with this pattern. Sometimes things are just simply above your skill level. So when I failed for the 8th time to make any type of progress on this, I took it to the LYS for help. Now she is good. And she did figure it out. But I have to say it shouldn't have been as difficult as it was to do it. In the end it was....... well, it has to be this way because there is just no other way it would work. I guess I just don't understand why so much stuff in knittng patterns is unwritten and you are left to beat your head against the wall to figure it out. And, to tell the truth, we still don't know if the fix we came up with is going to work in the end. If I had chosen to make the smallest size, everything would have been fine. But there is no good explanation for what you do with the extra stitches for the larger size as they do not fit into the charted pattern work. So I finally get the waist band worked out after many, many trial and errors, only to get home and get stuck on the lace inset. So I'm stalled again until I can make it to the LYS again.
Believe me, normally I would have given up on this by now. But my daughter really wants this for Colin. Ugh.

I'm half way finished with the second STR sock. I spent the entire day knitting yesterday instead of doing the things I should have been doing. But I enjoyed it. I spent WAY too much $$$ at the LYS on Saturday too. I finally got a set of Denise needles. I've been wanting them for a long time. I got some discontinued EMU DK in navy (for a future Colin project) and some white superwash sock yarn to try my hand at dying. I got a little somethin somethin for my "other" secret pal too. So, all in all, I was totally out of control. Sometimes a knitter's just gotta do what a knitter's gotta do.