My attempt to shrink the body did help a little bit, but clearly not enough:

I have to admit, the word ‘hideous’ was the word that came into my head first when I saw these photos.

No, I’m not hunching my shoulders here. It just looks like I am.

Thank goodness for knitting blogs that make you take photos of yourself wearing your creations, so you know when something Does Not Look Good On You. These photos, when unaltered, left me wanting to work out, get a very padded bra, wear make up on a weekend, and go get my haircut fixed. (The hairdresser’s interpretation of ‘fringe’ and ‘layering’ and mine were vastly different.)

Thank goodness for Photoshop and the ability to adjust contrast, levels and saturation. (And for my habit of cropping out my head, though Norah Gaughan and co. can’t be held responsible for the state of it!) This is the best I could make the pullover look.

But unfortunately Photoshop can’t make a garment fit properly. The garment measurments are now reasonably close to the pattern specs. The problem is this pattern was designed for someone with a body shape completely different to mine. For someone with really skinny arms, a big chest and wide coathanger shoulders.

I’ve considered whether the waist shaping I added might be to blame. Perhaps a little. Having the side dip in to the wait has enhanced the fact that the underarm of the garment sits halfway down my upper arm. But it would have sat there anyway, waist shaping or no, and the body would have looked like a big shapeless sack.

No, I think the waist shaping will make it look terrific on someone with skinny arms, a big chest and wide coathanger shoulders. Anybody know someone built like that who might want to give this jumper a home?

I’ll be happy to post it to you. After all, in knitting not everything you make turns out exactly as you’d like it to. I enjoyed knitting this (though the reknit of the pentagons might have involved a little grumbling), learned something (pentagons aren’t scary), crossed another item off my Knit From Your Books list and reduced the stash a little. And it would be a shame to frog it when it could look great on someone else.