A Tale of Two Cast Ons

I shared here that I had my annual "cast on all the yarn!" fest after Christmas, and by now I know what is actually going to stick. I only ripped the cast on of one project (probably a record for me) and it was the Rocky Coast Cardigan. I will definitely make that cardigan in the near-ish future, this is just not a good cable-y time for me. I'm not really a great cable knitter even though I love the idea of cables and favorite many a cabled pattern.


I still need a cardigan though, so I cast on the Shapely Boyfriend by Stefanie Japel.


Actually, I cast it on twice.


The first time in an act of hilarity I just kind of grabbed needles and yarn and got going with my usual size, telling myself that I've worked with this particular yarn so frequently that I totally know my size and gauge and all the other lies knitters tell themselves when they just want to get to the knitting.


And about 3 inches down I thought, "Huh. Something about this just isn't right" but I brushed it off and put on another inch.


Then something struck me and I actually read more of the pattern. The word ARAN jumped off the page at me this time.


NOT worsted, like I had originally thought.


So I checked the gauge in the middle of the back section and got smacked in the face with 4.5 stitches per inch, rather than 4.


But of course, that couldn't be right so I measured in 3 other places, only to find that stinking 4.5 st. per inch appearing again and I actually told myself that I must be measuring wrong.


I almost started knitting again, but something came over me involving the word math and how math proves all sorts of things right and this time I'd use math to prove that 4.5 st per inch would totally still work on me and I wouldn't have to frog a thing.


Did I mention that math also proves things wrong?


Whatever it was that tried to convince me that that tiny little 1/2 stitch per inch wouldn't be a big deal was trying to take about 6 inches off my already moderately sized bust. It would be a kid sized sweater, and I am no kid.


I ended up putting the original cast on aside as if it didn't exist and started over with a new skein. The funny thing is that Ender noticed the two different skeins but same color the next day and asked if I was making "something matching" and I made the mistake of telling Ender what had happened.


And this boy, being as hilarious as he is said, "so you're telling me if you would have just read the directions you could have saved a lot of time?"


{I may have told him just the day before that he could have saved himself a lot of time by actually reading the directions in his math book that told him to subtract rather than to add... so you see now where he gets that from...}

I'm already beyond where the original cast on left off and I finally brought myself to rip back the original cast on so I can use the yarn.


And now it's like it never happened.


Right?