Clarification of Rnds 17-18, and start of body

Pattern says:

Rnds 17-18: Ldc around to last 2 sts.
Note: Beg of new rnd at end of Rnd 18.

This means:

Rnd 17: Ldc all the way around
Rnd 18: Ldc almost all the way around, leaving the last two stitches unworked.
Move your end-of-round stitch marker to the last st made (that is, your new end-of-round placement is 2 sts shy of the previous spot).

Move your end-of-round marker up at the end of each round. Do not confuse it with the stitch markers indicating the mid-point of each underarm, where the decreases will occur. The end-of-round will move over by one stitch with each spiral around, and that’s fine.

The instructions about moving the underarm markers markers just mean “reposition the markers to be dead center of each underarm seam when you get to the round that has decreases or increases.”

September 7, 2017

Made the gauge swatch tonight, and it was bang-on perfect the first time, in both directions. That’s never happened before….. I’m a bit spooked.

November 10, 2017

Set this aside for a while to work on other things; now back at it with great enjoyment.

February 25, 2018

Back at it again after a hiatus: realized something had gone wrong with the placement of the joins to make the underarms, since they weren’t coming out symmetrical in relation to the openwork along the raglan line. Turns out it was because I was confused by instructions for Rnds 17-18, and Next rnd (19, for me). see start of Notes section for what I figured out.

February 25, 2018

Only had 3 balls left, so when switching to new ball I got started on the sleeves instead of continuing the body. That will let me know if I need to redesign things to work with less yarn.

March 17, 2018

Definitely didn’t have enough yarn, and don’t know what I was thinking. Yarn would magically appear as I worked? The amount called for in the pattern was exactly right, and I knew how much I had at the start.

Used the last ball to do open work for the rest of the body and trim on the sleeves, plus a little patch to cover up where the joined rounds showed (now I know why the sweater pattern called for spiraling).

Seems okay, though I’m not crazy about the way the row of linked trebles at the bottom cups inward at top and bottom.