The one where it's too big

My vest, that is.

I've been steadily working on Mina's Tuxedo Vest for about a month. I finally finished knitting last night, wove in all the ends, blocked it--I was quite eager to wear it today, since I suspect this may (hopefully!) be the last really cool day of the season.


And it's too big.


Miles and miles of twisted stockinette, tortorous short rows, lots of scratchy yarn with bits of barnyard detritus in it . . . I even CROCHETED the buttonholes. Look, crocheted:

(I didn't say well)
 And it's too big.


Like, a lot too big.


It fits through the chest, and then disaster strikes. The waistline is more appropriate for a linebacker than for me.


I don't know exactly what happened. (Yes, I did knit a gauge swatch--after that disaster with Delphine, I learned my lesson.) The sizing options were not to my liking--32" and 36", but no 34". Since many pattern commenters indicated that the twisted stockinette didn't have a lot of give, I thought it would be best to go for the larger one.


But I've got a good 4 too many inches around the waist here, which doesn't really logically flow from knitting something that should've been at most 2" too big.

So, perhaps it's the yarn, which many knitters have said stretched after wasing--though I did not get that at all from my (not-so?) trusty swatch.

Now, what to do? It's knit from the top down, so I could rip it out to the waist and reknit, but the yarn doesn't have much elasticity--I fear it won't reknit well.

I think I'll just weep quietly into my vest for now . . .

::sniff::