Finished dad's sweater

I FINISHED MY FATHER'S BIRTHDAY SWEATER and IT FITS HIM!!! This is the "Exception to the Rule" sweater from The Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits, knit in Handwork Cora yarn. It fits him so nicely!
I finished it on 2/16, with only a couple of days to spare. As some of you know, this sweater has consumed my life for about 45 days. Dennis has had to sit on the couch by himself while I wound 22 things of yarn into center-pull balls, struggled to finish parts by my deadlines, and cursed at my mistakes; my friends at work have had to take breaks on their own so I could sneak off and knit; and I have stressed over the appearance difference (see below) while keeping up my motivation to finish it all by 2/19. But it fits him so it was worth it! :)

Before washing:
I was really hoping to participate in the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics, but I feel like finishing this sweater was enough for a while. :) Next up are some small projects and a "comfort shawl" for my grandma, who recently went into an assisted living facility.

Blizzard knitting!

We're having a blizzard! 12-18 inches of snow means that I get to stay home from work today--and still get paid Sunday hours--to finish my dad's sweater. Woohoo!! Last night's plans got axed too so I finished the second sleeve and connected all of the sweater pieces.

I decided not to re-knit the top of the back of the sweater. I just wasn't seeing a huge enough difference in those stitches and some of the others so I basically gave up and will say prayers the whole time it's in the washer.

I'm off to knit the collar and hopefully tromp through the snow to the laundry room to wash the FO!

Problem...

The pictures are a little blurry, but this is what my knitting looked like when I panicked and emailed the wonderful people on KnitList for help:

My post to KnitList:
[snip] When I get home from work tonight, I'm going to knit a swatch (flat) with something other than Denise needles and see if a different technique or brand of needle will give me those 4 sts per inch. When I find the right needle I'll knit the rest of the front and the sleeves and then decide whether or not to do the back for a third time.

But, again, thanks to everyone who responded. The advice given:
-Make sure your stitches aren't twisted (they aren't!)
-People have different tension when they knit and when they purl. Try going down a needle size when purling.
-Wet block midway to see if things straighten out
-Pull fabric a little to try to even it out
-Translate whole pattern into circ and learn to steek
-Do whole project flat
-Use the same brand needles for circular knitting and flat knitting
-Block well
-Washing may help if it's not a big difference

I'll post again when I finish the sweater—hopefully with happy news. :) [snip]