The final verdict: He likes it! He says the fit is a little baggy where the body and sleeves meet, but nothing too bad.

The modifications I made (see below) gave the slimmer fit that Patrick requested, but after seeing the finished product, my personal preference would be a slightly looser-fitting sweater (like the model is wearing in the pattern photos) to go with the worsted yarn. I think closer-fitting sweaters look better in a finer-gauge yarn. But as long as he likes it, I’m happy.

This is first sweater I’ve knit for my husband Patrick in the 15 years we’ve been together! He has a 37/38-inch chest, but he wanted a slimmer fit than shown on the model. I ended up using size 7 needles to give a gauge of 18.5 st/4 in, and I made the following modifications to the pattern:

Sleeves:

I reduced the sleeve cast on to 44 sts, because Patrick thought 48 sts felt too loose. I increased until I had 60 sts, then I knit the sleeves to 18.75 inches from cast-on.

Body:

Goal circumference is 39 inches. I initially followed the directions for size M, but when Patrick tried it on, it seemed too big by ~2 inches. I re-knit the body, following the size S directions but using the size M lengths, since he’s a tall guy (5’10”).

Yoke:
I continued following the size S directions and using the size M lengths. I made two changes at the very top of the yoke, to make my stitch counts work out:
1) I omitted the final two rows before the last decrease row, because I already had 59sts for some reason.
2) For the last decrease row (with the k3tog decreases), I did the following: k1, k3tog, k2, sl marker, k2, k3tog, k1, sl marker, k2, k2tog, k to 4 sts before next marker, SSK, k2, sl marker, k2, k3tog, k1, sl marker, k2, k3tog, k1 (49 sts remain).

Collar:

• Stitch counts between markers (Total = 160): (Start) 35 (M1) 27 (M2) 36 (M3) 27 (M4) 35 (End)
• Instead of the twisted loops for the buttons, I chained 15 then sewed the chains into loops under the collar, about 4 stitches in.