mom's sweater

So now that Irish Moss is done, I'm concentrating on mom's sweater. Here she is as of earlier today:



And it's going pretty well but there is a problem on the front, I was going to say front right or front left but it occurred to me that I dont know whether it's left or right, because it's garter and I don't even know which side is the right side...

Anyway, on the pic above, it's on the side where the front panel is wider. The last three inches have some odd loose gauge.



They're almost ruffle-y. I have no explanation. I had no idea that I could knit with the same yarn and the same needles and get such a difference. When I noticed the looser rows, I let them rest and started working on the other side. I was kidding myself when I thought maybe the stitches would ease in? I'll be frogging a few inches.