Except

Lace.  You know I knit lots of lace things.  The Luna Cardigan from Cascade is all-over lace.  This means it will be gorgeous.  Except the all-over lace pattern means I must read the pattern not just in its 10-stitch repeat, but also in the way that in lace patterns the stitches added are then taken away.

Back to the left, The big "U" is the armhole.  The
right front is on the right.  The "L" is the neckline.

Details.  This one has a 10- stitch repeat.  All along the rows, the 10 stitch pattern repeats itself, except -- and this is a huge 'except' -- except when there aren't 10 stitches.  Here's an example.

You can see the diamond running just to the right of
center along what will be the shoulder.  On the right are stitches
which will become the neck ribbing, along the flat edge
and then up to the shoulder.  Looks like an "L".

The 19 stitches in the arm hole/shoulder had to work out in the lace pattern.  On the left side of the picture you can see that the patten isn't quite complete; there are some missing pieces to the diamonds.  That's to be expected.  For every hole in the lace, there's a corresponding stitch taken away.  This rule is essential to maintain the pattern repeat.

More details.  The above strip of 19 stitches took me three tries, maybe four.  Every time I thought I could decipher the lace pattern without its required 10 stitches I would look at my work and say, "Nope.  That's still not right."  Tink, tink, tink.

Now I'm making my way up the back.  The body of the sweater is knit in one piece which means each of the two fronts and the back are then continued from that wrap-around piece.

Looking good.  Check the right side of the knitting.
You'll see similar adjustments for portions of the lace
pattern, when the required 10 stitches are not
available.

The cardi will have short sleeves.

Except -- I may lengthen them a bit to fall to elbow instead of mid-bicep.