Almost there!

That's the whole completed body up to the armhole split. I was happily surprised that my calculations were, indeed, correct, and that it does, in fact, measure 21.5 inches across (the desired 43 inches around), and the front, 8 stitched larger than the back, lines up nicely with the back. YAY for math!

I'd be done with this by now, but of course, I hit a couple of snags:

1. In this picture, I split off and knit the back exactly as it's described for this pattern. It worked well. BUT I did my decreases all on the first two stitches. That made for messy edges which I, of course, ignored until I had knit the whole back and was halfway up the front. I then decided I couldn't live with said messiness, and frogged the front and back and redid them.

2. I decided that the way the neck was done in the pattern linked above would give too low-cut a neck. So I started mine a whole two inches higher. Which was fine, except when I (re)knit the front, back, joined the shoulders, and picked up and knit the neckband, that made the neck so tight, I couldn't pull it over my head. Frrrroooooggggg.

3. There were also several other instances of frogging and reknitting while I tried to establish the decreases that would look the nicest.

But...it's coming out so nicely! I love the way the cable is working out, and the way the 4-stitch cables frame the DNA. I love that it actually should fit! I love that I've (almost) knit something, an adult garment, nonetheless, that I pretty much designed myself. Obviously, I've followed stuff from that pattern, but I did the math, the layout, and everything. And really, there are only so many ways to decrease armholes and a V-neck.