Gauge schmauge

I was merrily knitting along on Pipkin and had just started the armhole decreases when I decided to check my gauge.

Hmmm.

It's a bit wide.

To be honest, it's about an inch-and-a-half wider than it should be. Which means that the whole sweater is going to have around 3 extra inches of ease.

I should go down a needle size, because I'm already knitting the smallest size of the sweater, so I can't decrease that without actual math and I don't feel like doing math today.

To complicate matters, my size 7 needles are currently occupied by the back of the Tinkerbell sweater for Bean. I had completed the hem, knitted part of the back and not liked the fabric, so I ripped it back and switched down to 7s and abandoned ship. If I'm going to co-opt the needles for another project, the least I can do is finish the back.

Mission accomplished.

So, I do the responsible thing and swatch on 7s for Pipkin. And I can barely get the needle through the fabric. Way too tight. And the fabric looks like hell.

Crunch time. The responsible knitter says rip the sucker and do the math. The Bad-Ass Knitter says, "Heckwithit." and completes the back so she can compare it to a real-life sweater she likes. Because I don't trust that damn measuring tape.