Solving for X.

I knit like an Olympian yesterday. I knit for hours and hours. Today I find myself ready to do the waist decreases (that I'm adding), which means that after dividing for the sleeves, I've knit 8" of stockinette.

In other words, now is the perfect time to find out that early gauge measurements were Lying Liars who Lied.

Here's a shot from yesterday, right after dividing for the sleeves:



And here's where we are now:


Newer gauge measurements reveal that I'm getting 17 sts/4" instead of the 20 I should be getting. Because I like the fabric I'm getting and don't want to go to a smaller needle, it's time for math.

Given the number of stitches that you're supposed to have after the last yoke increase, I'm finding that, with the given gauge, the piece should be 49.4" at the widest point. Measuring around the widest point of my shoulders in the shape of the sweater (i.e., not straight across but draping down a bit at the middle), I'm finding that I measure about 40.5", or 41" at the drapiest.

Now, my math could be borked. That would be par for the course here. But I did it both by cross-multiplying and the other way I could think to do it, and got 49.4".

At first I was thinking that I'd frog back to the last yoke increases (SOB) and then decrease for some kind of back-dart-y thing, but now I'm going to probably just re-work the numbers and increase to a number that's not nearly as big.

...Or, because my target number is pretty close to the number left before some of the sets of increases, maybe I'll just forget those.

Aarg.