knititfrogitknititagain

This (take note Katy) is the sleeve to a sweater, knit from a pattern (sort of....) for my dear friend's baby boy (George, what a great name...). I have knit this, apparently according to the pattern, maybe six times now. Of course, it isn't like the pattern - I've changed the stripes, and because I fiddled with the sizing a bit when knitting front and back, am having to do some regular checking by eye....ha ha ha ha ha, thats right. I really am stupid. And apparently unable to stick to a pattern even if it could make my life soooooo much simpler. So, there are a couple of things to note here: mainly that I didn't actually take the time to read the pattern thoroughly. I pretended to, sort of scanned it, but didn't actually read it right through. I guess this kind of means that the time I spent carefully swatching and measuring was sort of wasted...
However, I am confident that it will all come through - as long as I don't forget that I was totally foxed by the instruction to 'rib2tog' - if anyone can explain that then I would be very grateful. It seemed to mess up the rib pattern by decreasing the number of stitches, plus it also seemed to create an unpleasant sort of gathering in ( I loathe sweaters that shrink around the cuffs and bottom edge )....so I just ignored it. Besides, I want to go for a bit of a sloppy joe homeboy sort of style anyway...but - this is going to leave me with more stitches to pick up at the neckline for the hood, so I need to be on my guard. Think I've cracked it now though. Don't worry Katy, it will, eventually, be fine! As long as George doesn't grow out of it in the meantime...