Patterns or Guidelines?

Knitting Front:
Is it me? Have I made a bad pattern choice? Does this happen to everyone? Or just rookies like me?

This is my first sweater, Kyoto, you can find it at www.knitty.com . This is my trouble, or observation. I am having trouble sticking with the pattern. I want mine to be a better fit in the waist than the pattern calls for so I am blending the pattern sizes so that the bodice is a small at the waist and a medium at the shoulders. I am knitting the pattern out of order because it makes more sense to me that way. I am going to fit together the bodice, before making the sleeves or sash to see how it fits.

The pattern calls for the sleeves to be 16" squares and then seamed together. I think I will make mine 15" at the shoulder, narrowing at the elbow, and back out to 15" or 16" at the wrist. I may change the collar a bit too, I am not sure yet. Does everyone do this to patterns, or have I chosen a poor pattern for my body type? This seems to me to be a lot of changes for a rookie such as myself, am I having fun with it? Yes I am! I think I will wear the sweater more if I change it a bit to fit my body like I want it to. I will keep you posted on how it goes. I am having fun now, but there may be cursing later, stay tuned.

I have noticed another pattern. Every time I sit down to work on Kyoto somebody needs something. Quentin spent the night of the cast on sick in my arms, the next night glued to me because he was over tired from the night before. Last night PJ, feel out of bed and bumped her head as soon as I picked up the needles. After I settled her back into bed and calmed her down and settled myself back down on the couch with Kyoto my DH needed my help in the garage. After 'holding this here for just a minute' (or 10) I sat down again and the dryer buzzed. I am determined tonight to make some progress on the right front. The left front is finished. I will post a picture of the pair when the right side is done.