back and forth with Mrs. Darcy

It seems that Mrs. Darcy and I are destined to have a love/hate relationship. But clearly I should be commended on my tolerance for her weaknesses; I submit the following as proof of said tolerance:

Yes, I've completed the entire back already! It's knitting up super fast, despite the problems I'm having with the pattern (more on that later). There are clearly some issues here--the end is curling up (which is supposed to be fixed by crocheting along the edge, but I won't be attempting that again, so I'm not sure what I can do to address this problem) and the ribbing is a little airier than I would like--but no major complaints.

The pattern itself though, well, we're trying to work on our relationship. My major issue with it is that it's not as clear as I like my patterns to be--and that's obviously my own personal preference. As a still-learning knitter, I really need clear instructions, not "work the left side just like the right, only without the buttonholes and with the edging on the opposite side." Ugh.

Knitting the back, though, I did come across one problem that is not a matter of taste, it really is to do with the exact science that knitting is sometimes. The decreases read as follows:

BO 4 sts at beg of each of the next 2 rows.

K2tog at the beg of next 2 rows.

K2tog at the beg of every other row for the next 4 rows.

So, first I'm going to decrease 4 stitches on each side, then 1 on each side, but then I'm going to decrease twice on one side and 0 times on the other (if you're decreasing every other row twice, that's the same row twice, yes?)? That doesn't make any sense. It also doesn't seem to be a very loose armhole. So, after browsing through some Mrs. Darcy-related chatter on the forums for the Craftster KAL, I decided to k2tog at both ends of every other row for the next 6 rows, both to open up the armhole and make the decreases even. I never, ever would've come up with that mod myself (I realize I should be a fearless knitter, but I just can't make the leap to mods yet!), so I'm so thankful, as usual, for the extensive knitting community on the 'Net, always providing support to clueless knitters like myself.

I cast on for the right front last night, ripped it out at least twice trying to get the garter stitch border on the correct side because my brain simply couldn't wrap itself around the upside down, right side up, left, right, right side, wrong side dimensions (pattern quote: "We will be keeping a 3-stitch border of garter stitch at the right edge, and remember to do this because I didn’t really include it in my instructions. Just use your common sense and you’ll be fine." Um, right.), and noticed another small discrepancy--the amount of stockinette stitch before the twisted rib as written in the pattern does not match the back--but fortunately that one was easy enough to handle myself. Hurrah!

So, onward and upward. Someday I might actually have a sweater!