Yet more stripes

I've been keeping on keeping on with the Mably stripes, so much so that I did too much from the side increases to the neck shaping. I had to decide whether to rip it back, so I reviewed the pattern measurements and tried one sleeve on in front of the mirror.

The pattern is sized for S/M to 2X/3X, but if you read the small print it tells you that the model in the photo (see 2 May) is wearing the largest size. Now why is she doing that? She presumably isn't a 3X. I want mine to look quite large and drapey so I haven't ripped it back. I should have knitted for 10 inches after the side increases and I did 13 inches.

I've done a bit of the shaping now, and have just done a stripe of 8 rows of turquoise instead of 6 rows - does it occur to you that I'm not concentrating here? When I'm doing something complicated, I check it constantly; when I'm knitting lace I put markers after every set of pattern stitches, even if that means after every 10 stitches, and I'm very patient about ripping things out where I've made a mistake in a stitch pattern because I know, from experience, that if you make one mistake in a sweater or cardigan, it's the only thing that everyone notices, and from the other side of the street too. But once I start on a piece of stocking stitch like this, I just steam along compulsively and would rather knit another 10 rows than get up off the sofa to look for the inch-tape and actually measure it. I'm sure nobody will notice the slightly wider stripe, and I just need to remember to make the same mistake when I'm knitting the back, so that it evens up. Do any of you feel like putting money on that?

In the photograph you can also see Sylvester, who helps me with my knitting sometimes. He tells me not to bother ripping things back, and he never, ever plays with the yarn.