The Tragedy of the Loose Knitter

I feel like knitting books are full of the stories of knitters who hold their yarn too tightly, who get cramped fingers and have to go up several needle sizes to "get gauge", who have to use two needles to bind on and just can't get the bind off right.

But what about the loose knitter?

I am a loose knitter, and it means that when I bother to knit a test swatch, I start out with a needle smaller than called for by the pattern. That much is a given.

But today, I finally freed up my 2.5 mm circular needle to cast on for a test swatch for a project calling for a 3.0 mm needle. The result? A swatch that's a good one-two inches larger than it should be. FANTASTIC.*

So, I'll probably cast on with my zeros and knit this pair of socks for the rest of the year. Good news is that I think the pattern will be easy to knit on the go, but geez, ZEROS.

So, what about you guys? Tight knitters? Don't knit patterns where it matters? Are there any magically accurate gauge producers out there? And the million dollar question, does this issue come up in crochet??? (Or the sewing arts?)

*Sarcasm.

to frog or not to frog...

Along with voting on what to do with the leftover (very cute) fabric from KZ's chairs, please also vote on the following question: What do I do with my ugly knitting? Do I rip it out? Or do I try to dart it so that it fits me? Or do I do something else with it? I've heard pretty widely varied responses in person, so I thought I'd try to collect ideas a little more systematically.

Here's the ugly knitting:

Here's one suggested way to dart it:

Thanks for any and all suggestions!