A failure or two...

So remember the KnitPicks Sugarbunny I bought? The pink and purple lusciously soft angora/merino blend? Well, I wanted to make a special pair of wristwarmers for my sister (hence the girly colors).
After much searching I found a beautiful pattern, Andreas Mitts. Unfortunately the pattern was $6 so I turned my searching elsewhere. But, just for kicks, I added it to the Pattern Wishlist in my most frequented Ravelry group and then went to bed.
Well, the very next day I found that a lovely owl had gifted me both the mitts and the shawl that goes with them.
Now, I hadn't known there was a shawl, as well. But I definitely didn't have enough of the Sugarbunny to make the shawl AND the mitts, so I used some Caron Simply Soft from the stash to try out the pattern.
...
Mistake 1) The pattern calls for a sport weight yarn and I chose a worsted weight
I justified this by saying "well, the Simply Soft is a pretty thin yarn anyways. Besides, I don't have any sport weight and if i make the small size it should work out."

Mistake 2) The pattern calls for an alpaca blend yarn and I chose a 100% acrylic
I have no excuses for myself on this one.


Anyways, I cast on and worked the cuff. Which turned out very nice, cheap yarn aside, and I quickly decided these were going to be awesome.

But when I got to the hand things started to get ugly.
1) I apparently suck at jogless stripes when working 2 row stripes
2) I also apparently can't keep track of increase rows unless I mark them down in a notebook and cross off each one as I finish
3) I am too proud to use stitch markers for something as easy as a thumb gusset.

So I frogged the first attempt at the hand and went to bed. The next day I worked on, and finished the hand. The entire time, there was this niggling feeling. A whisper in my mind saying "they are too big."

So it is. I won't be making a second mitt. At least not with this yarn/needle combination. Unless I find a person with big manly hands who wants a pair of acrylic slytherin colored gauntlets with leafy wrist detail and a picot trim.

Sigh.
The pattern is really lovely though, and I did a picot bind-off for the first time ever. Which was much easier than I'd imagined and which I might have to incorporate into other projects later on.
So that was one failure.

Now for the "or two."
I'm not sure if this is going to end up being a total failure or not.

 I finished the sleeves of my Hello Baby Cardigan last night.
The sweater is cute and small and soft.
BUT
The opening at the center is far too wide.

Far too wide.
I obviously can't just do an I-cord trim and let that be it. Some other ravelers have had the same issues and fixed it with a bit of extra I-cord loops or crochet edging.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do, just yet.
I might just pick up all the stitches and work a plain garter stitch border, reminiscent of the baby sophisticate sweater.
Who knows. All I know is that it is not the perfect little project I was hoping it would be. The yarn isn't exactly the most beautiful thing ever, either. It definitely needs a good blocking and keeping it in my purse means a ton of wrinkles.

So, in the face of failure what do I do?

Something simple.