I was really excited after finishing the headband, and cast on for the Alice in Wonderland mittens I'm going to make for my advisor for helping me so much.
I ran in to trouble pretty much right away.
The pattern starts with scalloped edges, which worked out well enough, but the row beyond that asked for increases that put the stitch count from 33 to 65.
First time, I got up to 45 stitches. Backtracked with cup of coffee.
Second time, I realized I didn't do the first purl. Fixed it, still only got to 47 stitches. Poured larger cup of coffee.
Third time, I improvised a little bit from the pattern and was able to get up to 62 stitches.
Backtracked again and considered switching from coffee to wine.
Very carefully did the same types of increases, positive that I was following what the designer had in mind. Got again to 62 stitches. Momentary frustration followed by realization that 62 was close enough and I would just go from there and add more later where I could. Poured another cup of coffee and settled into the pattern.
After a few rows, I got that queasy feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right. I was warned that I should immediately go down a needle size or two by someone who had knit this pattern before, and didn't really think of it since I had already had so much trouble and didn't want to think about it. But that dark feeling in my gut as I kept knitting the cuff kept saying to me, "It's too big. You should measure it. It doesn't look right."
I told my gut it was fine and, naturally, kept going.
As I passed the first buttonhole and got closer to the second, just to shut that feeling in my gut up, I decided to check my gauge and prove once and for all that it was fine and it just... looked big. It would be way better once it was connected. Right?
Gauge- 9 stitches to the inch.
My gauge- 7 stitches to the inch.
Just to be sure (because we all know only measuring the gauge isn't enough of an indicator) I took out my measuring tape to see just how long the cuff was.
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