Flexible Interpretation

So I finished the intarsia on Nathan's Weasley sweater only to find that the front was already longer than it was supposed to be. I did choose the medium-sized "H", but this seemed to be in proper proportion to me... Sigh. Well, better to have a sweater on the long side than one that's too short, so I kept knitting with the blue for another inch or so before shaping the neck. Someone also kindly reminded me that I should have increased my stitches on either side where I'm going to have to seam under the arms. Again, oh well. If it looks weird when I'm done I'll just keep "seaming" all the way to the bottom so it looks somewhat uniform. Ugh, I knew there was a reason I didn't knit sweaters very often... You may have noticed I've still got all the stitches for the shoulders and neck on a stitch holder at the top of my piece - that's because after I did the neck shaping, the pattern read to keep knitting the shoulders until they are the same height as the back... Um, since I hadn't started the back yet, this was a little problematic. That's what I'm working on now. What happened to me? I used to read patterns step-by-step... Now I just read the whole thing, then dive in wherever? It's a good thing I (sort of) know what I'm doing!

Here's a sweet pic of Nathan holding his baby sister: