Central Park Hoodie --Top down

Yes, yes, my friends know I don't get past the first instruction of a pattern before I am thinking of how I want to change it, but this time I've bitten off a mighty chunk. I decided to knit the Central Park Hoodie, but I am not going to put that much time in a project and discover it doesn't quite fit. Or discover it will never even approximate my figure--such as it is.

So, I'm going to rewrite it for top down. This isn't the easiest thing I ever do because I have to reverse spatial shapes in my head. I can do that, but sometimes at a price of scrambled brains. Where the pattern says bind off, you cast on; where it says decrease, you increase, and so on.

I have to shake my head and clear the slate from time to time. I recommend you attempt this one part of the pattern at a time, and then rethink your work the next day to make sure you haven't included three armscyes and only one sleeve.

Just to make this interesting, I also decided to use some yarn from my stash. (Warm feeling) I love Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece; perfect for NC winters and lovely colors to choose from. I have My Blue Heaven. I joined Stashalong 2008 and using this really gets me started on my goals.

Gauge rears its ugly head. (Wish I had a picture of that) After lots of math, I decided to knit the pattern 3 sizes larger to get the size I need. Of course that doesn't take in the row gauge; who counts row gauge? Top down lets me try it on and speed up or slow down the shaping. Sure . . .

So far, so good. The back neck is the correct width as is the shoulder width. I've knitted the back and two fronts almost to the end of the armhole shaping. I've frogged twice; mainly because I seem to be unable to read my own handwriting. I've frogged two cables because I twisted them incorrectly. I've changed the numbers of rows between increases several times and I just cast on some extra stitches near the center front because I liked them.

That's the thing about altering the hell out of a pattern. You've got to be willing to screw it up from time to time and visit the frog pond, a wiser knitter than before. For some reason, I really love this way of knitting. Must be senility setting in.

Stay tuned. I'm soon going to have to figure out how to cover "the girls." Can you say Short Row?

Also on the needles, Lily Chin's shawl from Vogue Winter08, a lace scarf for Charlotte Yarn as a store sample, and a new sock pattern in development. I keep them all in bags around my chair and knit a bit on each as the mood strikes. Life is good.