Knitting accomplished!

Good news, folks. I swatched for Bella Pacquita tonight and I hit gauge exactly . . . with my unwashed swatch. Damn it!

Unwashed, I'm getting 18 sts/4 inches and 26 rows/4 inches. Washed, I'm getting 15 sts/4 inches and 26 rows/4 inches. I need to do the math to figure out if I can just knit a size down and get it to work out. Unfortunately, instead of being written out, the pattern is written entirely in charts. I really like written instructions for stuff in stockinette, because I can just scrawl down the directions I need on a Post-It and I don't have to lug around a print out. I'm saving the rainforest, one knitting pattern at a time!

Also, I don't have access to a computer lab with free!free!free! printing (that I'm paying probably several thousand dollars for each year in tuition), and my printer is out of ink.

Stupid gauge! I don't want to go down a needle size because I think that will make the fabric too dense, and since this is intended as a summer sweater (cotton with lycra), it needs to breath a little. Maybe I'll trawl through Ravelry and see what I can turn up for the gauge I'm getting.

ETA: It looks like I'll be able to knit the next size down and still get something that will fit. The bust on the XL is 37.78 inches (170 stitches) at its widest point at the recommended gauge, while the bust on the L is 32.45 inches and 146 stitches. At my gauge, that becomes 45.3 inches on the XL and 38.94 inches on the L. That's a little big on top for the L, but if I use the M size for the back, then it should work out, since my girth is all up front.

Bust darts? Oh, lord, no.

I just measured myself to see what sort of adjustments I'll need to make to the front bodice of Bella Pacquita. The length of the front bodice from the shoulder to the bottom is 12 inches. The distance of that measure on me is 14 inches, which translates into 13 rows that currently aren't in the pattern.

Here are my options:

1) Work two inches on the bodice before starting the shaping at the neck and side seams.

2) Just work it as is; hope for the best.

3) Knit a larger swatch, wash it and let it hang with weights on it to see if the cotton will stretch monstrously once on. (I don't think it will. The yarn started out as a sweater from The Gap, and it was very resilient.)

4) Figure out how to work short rows for the front. *screams* Math . . . Unless two inches is too many short rows for such a little empire bodice.

So, knitting friends, what do you think is the best option? Anybody have experience with short-row bust adjustments in cotton?

While I wrote this, I ate a salad composed entirely of vegetables from the garden. Leaf lettuce, spring onions, and icicle radishes sliced into coins. Yum! I'm thinking about grabbing another spring onion and just chowing down on it, because they are that delicious straight out of the garden. Or more radishes. (Yes, aesiron, radishes.)