My knitting must be getting looser as I get older. After trying a gauge with 8's and getting 16 sts/26 rows, I tried it with 7's and was able to get close enough for jazz - 18 sts/23 rows. The pattern calls for 18/26, but I figured that width is more important since I can easily adjust length by doing fewer or more rows.

I decided to save the stockinette back for easy Knitting Night knitting, and went ahead with the left front. Stockinette isn't my favorite, but having the 24 stitch reversible cable pattern at the beginning or end of each row has kept it interesting so far.