Bring me wild plums, wild plums and agrimony!

While knitting the new Malabrigo sweater (based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern in Knitting without Tears, of course!) last night, I made a startling discovery.

You see, the thing is that I generally prefer to knit sweaters on a pair of twenty four inch circulars. However, I was low on cash for needle buying, and simply bought one thirty-two inch circular, thinking, "Oh, the sweater will only be thirty-six inches in diameter, what difference could it possibly make?"

Cast On #1, Lesson #1: Measure and count accurately. Twice. Thrice if you're as Dense as Spilary.

Malabrigo is lovely. With a US7, I get a very even, very consistent five stitches per inch. The fabric that this gauge produces is loose enough to drape, but tight enough to have that fat, squooshy "I'm made of Malabrigo" sort of vibe. Good times!
Note that I just said five stitches per inch. Not seven, eight, or nine. So. Casting on two hundred sixty stitches (don't ask me where I got that number --- I have yet to figure it out), yields a sweater that is a whopping fifty-two inches in diameter. This is in fact, almost double the diameter I wanted, and I knit approximately fifteen rounds before realizing that something had gone dreadfully awry. That is about 3900 stitches, for the record.

Cast On #2, Lesson #2: PAY ATTENTION!! And use the correct tools for the job!

Remember how I mentioned that I had opted to save some cash and use a single thirty-two inch circular? Well! I cast on the correct number of stitches in the alternating color (Sealing Wax, in case you are of the curious persuasion) because after 3900 black stitches, I was "blacked out", as it were. Yes, yes, I know. The pun gods will smite me shortly. It's fine. Lovely. The reddish Sealing Wax was a welcome contrast and I knit happily for 23 rounds, switched to black for 12, and switched back to Sealing Wax for 3 and then once again, realized: Something is Wrong.

I had twisted the stitches on the needle before joining them in the round. I usually avoid this by using two circulars, because they give you more shift room for your stitches, and you can simply line them up into little rows that face each other, and voila! No Twisted Stitches!
But no. Not this time. THIS time, I had put a full 360 degree twist in the middle of my sweater, and failed to realize it because the knitting was bunched onto a single circular needle until I had knit a total of 37 rows. At 180 stitches per round (yay math!) that's somewhere in the ball park of almost six thousand more wasted stitches.

Plus!
Frogging out knitting in the round with a full twist in it = nightmare tangles.

By the time I was finished frogging it out and muttering profanities under my breath, an entire episode of House had begun and ended, and I had to rewind it at watch it again.

Upside?
I'm now thinking checkerboard in Sealing Wax and Black.
Never done that before.

Remind me that I thought this was a great idea when I'm weaving in all the ends.