Gauge Rage

So my quest into mitten knittin’ has not been without its hiccups.  I finished one mitten and realized I wasn’t going to have enough yarn for a second, so I decided to make the thumb a different colour, and make the other the opposite.

My niece will be 7 and it will be right up her alley.  Great plan, except that as I was knitting the second mitten, I began to notice something a bit off:

 

My second mitten seemed to be a bit smaller than the first.  Surely I was mistaken, so I hauled out my trusting measuring tape:

Yes, that’s a centimetre difference.  It’s noticeable.  For the record, my niece’s hands appear to be relatively the same size, so I don’t think I can pass it off as “planned.”

I confess, I’m not a gauge person.  I like to wing it.  Besides, I’m using mostly Cascade 220 Superwash, so it as long as I knit them the same, it should turn out ok. Except the purple yarn wasn’t 220 Superwash, it was Greenland. A yarn I bought on clearance. A yarn I really liked.  Or at least I did until I did a little search on Ravelry:

It’s not worsted.  Which is what I thought it was when I bought it.

It’s Aran.  Which is different.

Apparently about a centimetre different on a pair of kids mittens.