Gauge, and other things

The problems I've been having really don't have anything to do with Gauge, but I feel like I have to blame something about it, and Gauge (it is capitalized to give it the respect it deserves) will work. I've been working on this cardigan off and on for about a month. This one to be precise. (I've been obsessing over it ever since I saw the movie.) So I look at the pattern and realize that because I have these accessories out the front that the designer of the pattern perhaps doesn't have that I will have to make the large. I cast on, read what the pattern says about upsizing and start. After about three rows, I decide that I don't like the look of all those purl stitches inbetween the different cable panels required to upsize the pattern and decide to change the cabling. So I do. I change the cabling, work the entire front (conveniently ignoring the fact that I miscross three of the cables in the process), kitchener the two fronts together as the pattern calls for,

Then realize that the way I have changed the cabling changes the way the whole cardigan hangs, and it doesn't look right at all. I have now ripped out the two fronts, have re-knit one of the sides with a larger version of the original cable the pattern calls for, and am in the midst of the second half. There may have been some alcohol, tears, and language unbecoming a knitter in the process.

There's GOT to be another way to adjust for porch sizes.