Can Anything Good Come from This?

We've all been there, right? You knit exactly what the pattern says and end up with a piece of cloth half as thick as it should be, with 27 more stitches and a slant where it should be straight.

I am to the sleeves of this sweater. It makes sense when I look at the shape of the piece I should be creating. But the directions DO NOT WORK. I checked errata and found one small error for the pattern, but nothing that explains the difference between what I should be getting and what I am getting.

I have fallen back on my own calculations and approximations. They go on FOR PAGES. The first adaptation I tried was too short. Rip, rip, rip.


Then I got it right, but had never switched up from the smaller needles I'd used to catch my live stitches. So I had two inches of fabric at a noticably smaller gage. Rip, rip, rip again.

Then (are you thinking Three Bears?) it was too long again, so a did a few more modifications and reknit. With the too small needles AGAIN! I am nothing if not persistent in my thick-headedness.

At any rate, I finished the first sleeve, have successfully sewn it to the front panel (thus confirming that it is the right length) and am on to sleeve two.

Does this look like it should be so difficult?