P3tog broke my needles!

In my craft room I have about 1/5 of the total floor space available. This is because I hoard. 18 months ago the 4 of us where living in a flat with 1 bedroom and a kitchen/diner/sitting room. I am not complaining-we rented from a lovely family we are still very close to, who lived in the rest of the house, I am just making a comparison. Now we have a 4 bedroom 1930's(ish) ex-council terraced house, and it was full of "stuff" within 2 months....

Anyway, I have identified that my stash of yarn, fabric and magazines are all unnecessarily large, and in an attempt to cut down, I plan to knit one pattern out of each magazine I own, incorporating at least one ball of "stash". I should also be making more clothes for my family, but that is a more intense activity, and the results are more frequently turned down.

But back to the knit. After a successful dinosaur who is a fine present for any of the many young people turning 3 this year I am acquainted with, I have moved onto the more stylish Sorbet pattern from Yarn Forward magazine 17, a child's cardie with ruffled bottom edge, striping and eyelet patterning between. choosing to forgo the traditional "girly" colours, and acrylic yarn suggestion, I have gone for jewel toned 100% cotton, which I shall say now was a suggested alternative!

starting at the bottom, I cast on an unreasonable amount of stitches on rather small needles. my 3.25mm knit pro straights are needles of choice at the moment, but I have short ones, so after a bit of faff, I transferred the stitches onto a circular. at the end of the ruffle section, the pattern called for an ass-load of p3tog's to reduce at the top of the ruffle. now I have found "3togs" a strain at the best of times, but P3tog, 100% cotton yarn and tight gauge resulted in my second knit pro symphony breakage, Boo-hoo! Split along the grain, so blatantly my fault, no manufacturing problem (last time Alison at p2tog sent me a new pair really promptly, excellent service). I plan to get the Man to glue the beast back together this time, as the mend he did on the straights a child stood on was fantastic! It is a rather convenient coupling really, the knitter/spinner and the carpenter...
before/after photos of the needle to follow, when I have earned enough Man-points to broach the subject of the job...