What's the opposite of cable-licious?

Mary asked me about this project - the wee aran sweater.

I'm about a sleeve and a half away from the dreaded seaming. The bloom is off this rose. It's a pure slog knit now.

The knitting itself isn't that bad. It's not the most fun I've ever had, but it isn't the least either. I do not underestimate my dread of sewing. I don't feel comfortable with it. I have no idea how the cable patterns are going to match up at the saddle shoulders (other than I expect they will not; match up that is!)

I suspect that since I don't have much confidence that this project will come even near to meeting expectations, that I am deliberately slowing down to put off the inevitable disappointment.

I've already encountered one major problem. The sides of the sleeves are to be knit in moss stitch and kept in pattern during the increasing. I have absolutely NO CLUE how to do this and haven't found any help on the internet. [I confess to having spent much more time looking at lace shawl patterns than searching for this answer.]

Now this should not be an insurmountable problem. Obviously it can be done; witness the pattern photo! A little logic applied should solve the puzzle. But for the life of me, I can't figure it out. As I worked up the sleeve chart, I did something and decided this was a pattern. Not the pattern, but repetitive. I rationalized that the parents and other adults around the intended baby wouldn't have the pattern in hand for comparison and would really be so besotted with the infant that they wouldn't give a backwards glance to the gladrags.

And truly, at this point, if I'm thunderstruck with the answer, I doubt I'd frog and restart. The baby-to-be is growing and so should this sweater!