Sewing bites

You know, sewing and me, we don't agree.

I have been trying to make some bumpers for little mans cot (he tends to thrash around his cot a bit at night and often wakes himself up). So I buy the fabric, the foam, some ribbon to tie it on with. And unfortunately cheap thread (mental note DON"T BUY THE CRAPPY CHEAP THREAD).

*So I sit down to sew, thread it all up, start to sew. Thread snaps. Deep breath, try again.
Sew for 4 inches, thread snaps.
Throw fabric across room, curse and storm out.
Total sewing time: 10 mins.*

Repeat * to * in another week or so.

So I go buy some Gutterman (should have got this in the first place, damn you frugal buying for no good reason but being too lazy).

So I sit down to sew, thread it all up, start to sew. No thread snapping! No need for deep breathing, or trying again!

So only took me about 1/2 an hour to complete it all, and it actually looks good and fits nicely.
One day I will learn NOT TO BUY THE CHEAP CRAPPY THREAD.

Onto some knitting, still going on the MJ, only about 15 rows left on the front then I'm onto the sleeves. It has taken 16 balls to do the front and back so I'm hoping that 9 balls will be enough for the sleeves. Oh gee I hope so, hunting around for dye lots is not my favourite pastime.
I discovered a friend of mine from a yahoo group is a big time fan of knitty and has her own blog AND she is being kind enough to let me go in with a order with her from KnitPicks so I'm looking at elegance to knit the gorgeous Union Square pullover from IK's fall issue. But me not being good with the maths I can't get my head around the different gauges. I hear it will work from the smart chickies at knttty, but I just don't get it. If anyone is better than me at the maths can you explain it to me?? Just a short arithmetic lesson would suffice... or a link to a gauge conversion calculator thingy might be better when my eyes glaze over as you explain the maths to me ;)