year of the sleeve...

I was just reading that 2012 is the year of the dragon, well, actually the year of the water dragon and it sure sounds promising! You know, the Chinese astrology thing...
I’ve been thinking of 2011 as the year of the sleeve - I seemed to have had lots of sleeve issues in 2011 and was hoping that I’d left them behind...well, this new KnS project I’m on - I just finished my fifth sleeve!! And, thanks, I’m pretty sure I’m done now... The first one was perfect, and yes, it was the first piece I made - using my own advice to check the stitch pattern on a small part, made the sleeve first...but then, after I did the back and the 2 fronts, I decided that I wanted 2 repeats of the pattern for the sleeves, so proceeded to make 2 more sleeves (count ‘em, we're up to three, now!) the same length as the first.
Now, I’ll tell you, when I’m knitting for myself, I usually know what size I want and how it should fit. Here - I know, I’m making excuses, but - I’m making it for an unknown model who is supposedly a finished chest of 36", but taller than average - after all, she’s a professional model...they say to make the sample longer by 1 inch...
My original plan - it’s a summer cardigan, so I’ll make a short sleeve and for me, a short sleeve means to the elbow, and without really thinking it through, that was what I did here with the first three. When I got to the putting together, let’s face it, a finished 36 isn’t going on me, so I had one sleeve attached with one side seam done and tried it on...yikes, what was I thinking??? (the visuals, huh! sorry..)
But, I’ve really become attached to this stitch pattern, I love it!! Finished the two new sleeves, got them on and it’s perfect! I know I can’t salvage the sleeves unless I order more of this same colour, but we’ve been over this before - it photographs well, what can I say! But I will be making this again in MY size (and my colour)!!