At long last, pictures of my finished Poker, which I have already worn several times:
I am delighted with this sweater. The neck does stand up as I hoped it would, the zigzag pattern is great, and the proportions are almost perfect. I say "almost" because I could have made the body about an inch longer and would feel more comfortable wearing it with some of my lower-waisted jeans and pants. The yarn is delicious.
I learned two important technique and design modification things in this project:
1. I am short from chest to shoulder. I did modify the length of the area over which I did the raglan decrease, as I mentioned before in my dissatisfaction with my lack of modification in the Ariann pattern. Shortening it by about an inch seems to be the right thing to do.
2. Knitting bottom-up in the round, but knitting the sleeves flat and attaching them at the underarm. I was much happier doing this, and sewing up the sleeves afterward, than doing the sleeves in the round.
All in all, a wonderful project!