That cardigan I started some years ago? It failed. Despite my calculations and gauge swatches, it came out too small so I ripped it all up when I was well over halfway. Then I was so disappointed and annoyed with the whole project that I put it away for a long time. Now I feel up to a new attempt.

Since the swatches didn’t help me get the sizing right, I simply made three starts this time, varying some parameter each time.

The first one is the same size as my first attempt, and with the same needle size, but I tried to knit more loosely.
The second one is the next size up, keeping the same needle size and yarn tension. (Can’t be 100% sure about the tension but I think I kind of remember.)
The third one is the same size and same yarn tension, but with thicker needles.

And to complicate things, I’ve switched the type of needle I use, because I discovered that I like stainless steel much better than aluminium.

I’m not sure if this helped at all. They all feel roughly the same size, except the one that I thought would be smallest (small size, small needles, looser knitting) is a bit larger than the others. But it’s very hard to measure large, curved, floppy things, and also hard try on a small piece of a cardigan that barely covers my shoulders. None of them feels too small, at least.

It may be that I can pick any one of these three and keep going and it’ll be fine. Or maybe it’s not possible to judge the size this early in the project and the result will turn out too small or too large anyway. I have no idea where this will end up.

I guess I’ll pick one and keep going. And if this attempt also goes wrong, then I might simply give up on this project.