Reading the Directions

I finished knitting the body of the second Chrysanthemum mitten this evening, and happily set the two mittens side by side to bask in the awesomeness of finishing a large part of this project.

Aren't they pretty?
I'm knitting these from the book Nordic Knitting Traditions, which allows the knitter to choose whether they want to knit mittens crown-to-cuff (which the charts are oriented towards) or cuff-to-crown.  The book has beautiful charts, well-written directions, and great pictures to show what your knitting ought to look like when you finish.  I opted cuff-to-crown, and after checking how many stitches I needed to cast on and increase once I got to the body, I simply followed the charts round and round, paying no heed to what was actually written down.
As I sat there admiring the finished mitten bodies, I looked at the chart for knitting the thumb, and noticed something.

The thumb chart had way more stitches than I had in my knitting- like, twice as many more.
And wait a minute- why did the thumb have a gusset in the picture, but I didn't have one on my mitten?

Oh, ^#$%.
Sure enough, I checked the directions in the book, and written very clearly, might I add, was this:
"On the first round of the pattern... place thumb gusset markers... and follow the thumb gusset chart to increase for the gusset...".
Double @&%^.  I can't blame the pattern for not telling me these things ahead of time.
Now my mittens have the teeniest thumb holes EVER.  I mean, don't get me wrong- the recipient has very small hands.  I could say that I didn't want them to be too big, or that I chose to leave out those side stitches, or... or...
Or I was a complete gumby who didn't read the &@$#ing directions before she started and completed two mitten bodies before wondering why the %$*~ing thumb holes were so tiny.
Cue the wine and ice cream.
This is going to take some pondering on how to fix it gracefully.