What's Done is Done...

I just had to rip back 5 inches.
After binding off all the stitches for the armpits and knitting in straight st st for long enough for me to feel satisfied with the amount I got done today, I did a quick count of the stitches and got 67. One stitch too many. The room I was sitting in was dark so I counted again. 67.
I have enough problems with this sweater without having to worry about an entire stitch popping up out of nowhere, so I had to go back and fix it.
Unfortunately the last time I did a good count was right around when I got to the armpit and since the armpit area is fairly obvious the best place to tear back to was the beginning of the binding off.... what's sad is that I had thought of putting in a safety line after I got the count right but I had shrugged it off.
One point given for becoming the kind of person who wouldn't just knit two stitches together, one point subtracted for thinking lifelines are for the weak.

At least I get to do all that shaping again. It really is a pretty boring sweater, all that stockinette...
So, I picked up my stitches and am about to continue bravely.

I sat there in the middle of the living room floor tearing back my sweater and I felt like such an evolved person. No crying, all my bad feelings were acknowledged but not expressed through throwing the knitting or cursing at it. I felt like showing it to my family: Look! I'm tearing back an hour of hard work with grace!!
I think that takes the grace out of it.

Anyways I did some measurements of sweaters I own, due to the off gauge thing.
One that fits at the waist (which i think is really stupid- i like a long sweater) was 17" at the bottom of back.
One that fits pretty long but when you button it doesn't really go all the way around my hips (although I think this was supposed to be part of the style for some reason) measured at 19"
And the one I was wearing today and, actually, wear more often than a lot of my well-fitting clothes measured 28".
So if I'm willing to tromp around sporting a 56" sweater of my 36" chest then I'm sure I'll have no problems with the way this hand-knit fits.
Still though, ripping out five inches? That burns.
I bet I could have finished the back tonight.