in which I am saved a lot of wasted effort

You know how you look at clothes in a catalog, and they seem so lovely and flattering, so you buy the item, and then when you try it on, it just doesn't look all that good on you? Now, I've long since grown out of the hope that a particular shirt will make my size 18 frame and DD bust look waifishly thin, and have recently learned that baggy clothes on a fat frame not only do not make you look thinner, but in fact make you look fatter. (In fact, baggy shirts have a tendency to drape ONLY the bits that I want to hide, perversely emphasizing said attributes.)  And so, after nearly 20 plus years of wearing baggy clothes, I am finally taking baby steps toward more fitted clothing. (Hey, give me a break. I came of age in the 80s, when oversize was mandatory. No shoulder pads for me though. Ever.)

'tis not so different with knitting. Now that I feel confident enough to knit a sweater for myself, and have read enough knitting books and am armed with plenty of skills to customize a sweater to fit ME, I feel ready to tackle such a project.   Yes, I've been measured accurately. The numbers don't frighten me.   

A few years ago, I fell in love with the Nantucket Sweater.

Is it truly not gorgeous? All that wonderful texture, the panel shaping, the sheer interestingness of knitting it. I bought the yarn, and even cast on for it (flush with confidence because I'd recently completed a sweater for Gusano Medidor), but completely screwed it up about half way up the back piece, and so I frogged it in tearful fury and stuffed all the yarn back into the bag, where it has sat for the last year and a half.  

Like the pain of childbirth, the pain of Mis-Knits eventually fades to the point that you are willing to try again. Mothers-to-be have Parents Magazine and Dr Spock and knitters (and crocheters) have Ravelry. What is Ravelry? It's kind of like the best of the internet-based knitting/crochet community in one spot. (If you knit or crochet, and aren't yet on Ravelry, get thee now to the site and sign up. It's free. You'll thank me for it.) One of the many, many, MANY things I like about Ravelry is that you can search for a pattern, like the Nantucket Sweater, and see who else is also working on it, and learn from their experiences.   And what I've learned is that the Nantucket Sweater looks like absolute crap on any woman who is, shall we say, buxom. Really slim, really fat, or somewhere in between, the sweater doesn't look good on the well-endowed ladies. Why? Because there isn't any 3-D shaping in front for the bust. I know the theory for shaping for a bust, but I can't figure out how to do it in this sweater with all its intricate texture without destroying the intricate texture, which is what makes this sweater so beautiful in the first place.

So, no Nantucket Sweater for me. I've already put in several 10s of hours for a sweater that doesn't look very good on me. No need to repeat the experience.