stinky day of knitting boo-boo's

I'm just generally having a pretty grotty day, knit-concerned. This morning, I tried on Heidi's nearly finished sock #2. My gauge is clearly way the hell off, and the sock is too damn tight. First one fits fine but has holey gussets, and now this. Can't bear to think of frogging it, but as B says, nann, you can't give people s---!

I also realized that, in my LYS lust yesterday, I bought lace-weight yarn that has some off-kilter WPI. The pattern calls for 183 grams for 1275 yards, and my 1300-odd-yards skein weighs 100 grams. I set it up against another lace-weight I had, and it's definitely much finer. Damn.

I am a take-backer, so I will swallow my embarrassment (remember, when I was angling for a job, I told the Owner that I was pretty good at yarn substitutions) and exchange it, but for what? More sock yarn? Zephyr (which, while I have been wanting to try it, will push the cost of this project beyond what I was hoping for the SIL Christmas gift)? And I'm not sure Zephyr has a red this beautiful.

If I were contemplating any other lace projects, I might keep it, but I am also feeling the push of pending job changes which will compound my tortoise-osity by getting rid of all my knittable time. This turns the stash from a pleasant indulgence into an albatross around my neck.

And, though I generally think I've lucked out massively, career-wise, with the pending changes, this makes me slightly less enthusiastic about them.