11/04/13: So I decided to knit Braid Hills instead. Since I didn’t get gauge (got 21 sts and 32 rows per 10 cm), I have been recalculating a lot.

Cast on 253 stitches, and followed the instructions for the fifth size until the waist decreases. Then I did 3 decrease rows every 6 rows, and 6 decrease rows every 4 rows to get down to the fourth size at the waist. (This is still with positive ease on me, the hips have negative ease because I’m too dumb to understand buttonbands are overlapping, and I’ll go to no ease on the bust by increasing 6 stitches on every increase row.)

I still have to see if the shoulders will be the right size, and the armscyes or if I have to fudge some more. I’m also debating adding horizontal bust darts. We’ll see.

11/08/13: Now I’m doing the bust increases, and am increasing 6 sts instead of 4, so that I get up to the fifth size again for the bust. So far I totally love it, the fabric I’m getting but I haven’t checked the fit.
I will probably knit the back as written because I only added the additional increases to the front, and will have to decrease those stitches again before the shoulders.

11/24/13: Last week I slowed down a bit with this, and even worked on other things in between, but yesterday I finally finished knitting the neckband, and this morning I wove all the ends in. Now to block, buy buttons, and sew them on.

11/30/13: And finished. I blocked it within an inch of its life because it turned out way smaller than anticipated. (Lying gauge swatch!) Then I was too busy to buy buttons but today I sat down and sewed them on, and it even fits, though not perfectly.
It turned out better than I thought last week but not quite as well as I had imagined it.

So. Changing a pattern so that the sweater fits me is a great idea, only next time I’ll check gauge before finishing most of the knitting.