I think I really ought to steam these test pieces to see how they actually look. The third test piece also curls terribly and again required the use of Post-It pads to hold it flat-ish.
You may (or may not) see that the left arm I had a bit of trouble again with the increase. I missed the first row on four or so stitches in a row; mostly okay-ish otherwise. The right arm, though, is pretty awesome. The last increased stitch for the right arm is a bit stretched and funny looking, but I’m really happy with it overall.
The instructions, though, for the right shoulder and right shoulder-shaping – ridiculous. I think there might be an extra two rows for the right side (I’m not quite motivated enough to do a proper manual count and my notes aren’t good enough to say without counting).
The bind-off for the neck I did in black yarn because it was the yarn I had easily available for doing the bind-off. I dislike the sort of pull there is between the black-yarn-bound-off-edge and the neck/decreases shoulder area. I guess, to be fair, the instructions do say that you’re supposed to crochet an edge around the neckline once you’ve steamed the pieces and sewn the sides and arms together. I imagine that the crochet edge prevents the ugly (and potentially damaging to the garment) pulling between those two stitches.
I am definitely going to re-write the instructions for test pieces 2 and 3 in a way that doesn’t leave them so ambiguous.