What the heck happened here?

There's a long, rich tradition of blogging about the angst-ridden subject of gauge. How it sucks to swatch when you just want to start the "real" knitting, and how it can be a Everest-scale test of endurance: choose right needle/yarn, cast on, knitknitknit, cast-off, wash, pin, wait to dry, measure, cry cause it's not right, repeat.

But the hardest lesson a knitter learns is that swatches are liars. Boldface, misleading, deceitful, dishonest, untruthful, mendacious, insincere LIARS.

Like all of you, I have wrestled with my own gauge issues. I've done some "iffy" swatches that resulted in sweaters that were a smidge too long, or sleeves that need to be turned up. I've even blatantly skipped the whole swatching thing because I knew it would be a waste of time. Most often I've run into "too big" or "too long" garments because I'm a loose knitter.

But THIS is a first!


Now I know I have a bigger-than-average noggin, but this is ridiculous!

WTF? I did everything I was supposed to: I used the recommended yarn, I got gauge, I followed the pattern to a "t". Then I thought if it's not me, maybe the pattern is wonky. I checked Ravelry to see if other people had ended up with lilliputian hats, but no, I'm the only one. Everywhere people are sporting lovely, normal-sized Foliages and I'm left with a fancy grapefruit cozy.

Harrumph!

Must be my punishment for neglecting you guys for so long... You probably noticed that I fell off that daily-posting wagon HARD!!!