Confession time, Yarnies.

They do say it’s good for the soul.

I have a problem. The Yarn Harlot has this problem too (she details it in Free-Range Knitter), so I at least can claim to be in good company. You see, I think I know better than the designer. I come across this pattern. It’s wonderful! It’s georgous! It’s pratically sublime.

But, dear designer, there’s just this one problem. There’s this bit that’s a little niggly, and I’m sure I could fix it just so. Or alternatively, you have me doing a technique I hate. Like seaming. So I’ve decided that I’m just going to fix the pattern a bit, just so I don’t have to do some seams. It’ll take a bit of math, and I understand why you think that it would be better to do the seaming… after all, not every reader you encounter is going to be as smart to modify the pattern like I did, and if you did it in the round you’d have to write at least another page and a half of instruction. And I know you were trying to save the trees/fit into a magazine page limit, so I’ll forgive you.

I’ll just do it in the round.

But oh, I just realized, when I do it in the round this little bit of lace, here, suddenly gets that much more complicated. That’s all right. I’ll just chart it out so that I can do it in the round.

But while I’m at it, why don’t I just add a little bit of a cable/extra picot/pineapple here? I think it would look lovely. But hmmm, then it throws this off balance. That’s all right, I wasn’t too fond of that design feature anyway.

… and so on.

Well, I’m having a bit of that problem with the Josephine Pullover by Annette Petavy. It’s beautiful. Both delicate and wonderful. And I’m managing to modify myself in knots.

Let me first make note, the pattern as written is perfect. Do it as she tells you and you will be fine. In fact, you might even be more than fine. You might even finish it before I do. And I started it in… oh, October 2010.

You see, first I thought that it would look gorgeous in an alpaca instead of the Rowan wool you recommended. After all, it’s discontinued anyway. I figured that the ribbing would make sure it would hang right, and because the panels down at the bottom are lace, it won’t pull on the fabric overly much.  You see, I know that alpaca can sometimes drape different than plain sheep’s wool. And since the Alpaca I was using was lace also, instead of the fingering you recommended, I figured that would be okay. I’d just make the largest size… and a slightly smaller needle, and it would fit (eventually) as I lost weight with weight watchers.  So far, I hadn’t modded too much.

I figured the designer knew best, so instead of trying to do the knitted portion in the round, I actually did it in two pieces and seamed them together.  This is a big deal.  I really don’t like seaming.  But I figured I would follow the pattern anyway.

… 

Okay, since we’re going for a full confession, I did add a selvage edge, because I was planning to crochet them together instead of sewing them. Hey, ever tried sewing with alpaca yarn? (that’s loosely plied?) Not something I would want to do. So I (Mostly) followed the directions for the knitting part. Oh, and I know the directions said to do the front and the back with the crochet before you seam them, but I decided against that also.

Then came the crochet lace part. Oh, my. The designer wanted me to do the front and the back, crochet the front and the back lace patterns, and then seam up crochet. My my, no way am I doing that. I don’t like how it looks. I’ll just do the knitting part, and then I’ll do the crochet part in the round. MMKay? Great.

… Except, I have more hips than the model. And I don’t like how the pattern did the shaping in the lace, so I’m modified how I did increases. And I’m going to add more increases because I have rather gifted hips.

So far so good.

…

…

Well, maybe not. You see gentle readers, the pattern wanted me to do the sleeves from the wrist up. And then seam those to the shirt. If you thought I’d be willing to do that for the bottom half of the shirt, I’m definitely not doing that for the sleeves. I decided I was just going to start them at the shoulder and go down.

But now I’m stalled.

What?  But you modified everything else, this should be easy, right?

Stay tuned… and I’ll explain.