Here is how to kitchener graft the cables on the neck pieces:

1. Start in the middle. Deep in the bowels of ravelry, someone mentioned that cables throw off kitchener significantly, and lo and behold its true. Starting in the middle - and working out on each side - aligned things beautifully.

2. Embrace the safety line. I tried doing this from needles, the way I usually kitchener, but it was WAY too hard to follow the yarn. I used two clear circular needle cords as safety lines (one on each side) and just worked around them. Made it a lot easier. I think a contrasting color yarn would also work well.

3. Tension gently. First attempt, I just pulled hard, and it came out wildly uneven: because of the changes from knit to purl, there are hitches in the yarn, which means you have to be gentle.

4. Patience. My several attempts took me four hours, but it was worth it.

Other Mods:

• All one piece up to the armholes.

• Lengthened all the things at least 4’’. This is not a pattern for tall people. Also, several boobalicious women I know knit this and wished they had lengthened more.

• Cast on 244. Same number of stitches for the large (248) less 4 stitches where the seams would be. This allowed me to size correctly for a thinner yarn.

• Kept the cable spacing in the pattern for the XS size and to make it a large, I added two nine-stitch aran braids under the arms on each side (four total) plus extra purls where the seams would be. Great for sizing and made the front cable-rific, but it had the unanticipated - tho not surprising - impact of giant arm holes. Hijinks and voodoo ensued.

• Flared out sleeve underarms before starting the sleeve cap so had the right number of stitches to attach to the body. To flare my sleeves, I added 1 stitch at the start of the last twelve rows and then bound off 14 on each side. This nifty trick worked really well.

• I added a little motif to the upper back.

• 3-stitch I-cord edging everywhere. It looked more finished to me and made button hole placement easier. I used this technique: http://youtu.be/sQiyElLtb00

Also for posterity, here’s how to do short-row top-down set-in sleeves
http://www.stephthornton.co.uk/knitting/knittips.htm
And the awesome resources from the Top-Down Rav group: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/top-down-sweaters/pages/Set...

(I read these then just winged it, but my pickups looked like garbage, so I ripped and did it to pattern. )

Intermittently hibernating because my tendinitis flares up…last time I knit down- gauge on a cable sweater.