I really spent a lot of time patting myself on the back while I was knitting this - that’s why I kept dropping sttches!

Guage swatch?!? I don’t need no stinking guage swatch! said the woman who began knitting top down, increasing to about 400 stitches around before checking guage - which was OFF by about 5 sts/inch! Seriously?!? 52 sts/4 in? seriously? Hmmmm, how big is it getting to be? Try it on Skinny Girl…ok, stop after 35 increases and split for arms and torso…228stitches, divided by 12 equals 19 repeats of pattern for torso/skirt, yes, let’s go with that… crosses fingers, knits on… Decides to decrease to 18 reps of the pattern, will be more even, nice and matchy-matchy for the front and back…108 stitches for 9 repeats on each side of sweater.
Of course, that’s when I was thinking the pattern was a 12 st repeat… Alas, it is a 12 ROW , and 21 STITCH repeat! Aaaargh! The sweater gods must be guffawing in my direction! Ok, regroup, turn 108 into 105sts, makes 5 repeats of the 21 stitch pattern. Place lifeline.
Knit row 1 of lace around lifeline using bigger needle. Very tight, keep plugging along. Should I mark the repeats? I don’t need no stinking stitch markers! said the woman who proceeded with the pattern, which she had copied onto the index cards INCORRECTLY, knitting 4 rows before realizing the problem was not with the splitty yarn, but with her own darn cocky self!
Rip out four rows. Say a prayer of thanks for the lifeline, insert tiny (sz. 1) needle into stitches, recopy pattern onto cards, dive in again, placing markers after every pattern repeat, ie - every 21 stitches.
Where is skinny girl? Must try sweater on again…no skinny girl to be found…keep knitting. Reach arms (tee hee) in pattern, and nearly complete one…long enough? Not sure, still can’t find skinny girl…why is she never home? DH doesn’t know either…finish sleeve one. Start second sleeve, find skinny girl, who informs that arm one needs to be about an inch longer…is she kidding? Nope, not kidding. Finish second sleeve, adding another inch of course…rip out hem on sleeve one to finish that - AGAIN! Realize a few moments later that I have jsut ripped out the cuff on SLEEVE 2…the second one that was already longer!!! Aaargh! Finish second sleeve for a second time, and these are really loooong sleeves now, and rip out cuff on sleeve 1 - I am sure it is sleeve 1 this time. Re-knit sleeve 1, adding a little more than another inch…take a deep breath and bind off…exhale! Wash the thing, take an inadequate picture, wait for Skinny-Girl to come home and model for a good photo (I hope)…the grey yarn is fuzzy and very hard to get a good shot of.

(Yarn from old sweater DS was throwing out - I unraveled and re-skeined and boy!, are my shoulders tired! I think it will work for this pattern… )