Following a pattern

I am here to tell you that I am in the same boat with folks who either accidentally or purposely stray away from a pattern as it is written. And in my case I think it is really necessary to stray and experiment and then enjoy the results. Its all a part of the learning process for me and I learn about things that can or cannot be done to a pattern to make it work.

Take for instance my latest published pattern Uljhan on Knitty Deep Fall 2014 issue. Seeing the lovely projects creeping up in the ravelry projects, I started craving my own. Most of my prototypes are sized for children in order to take pictures, since in my case, I haven't had the chance to get the right equipment to take my own pictures (I am getting there). 

Here it is: (here on ravelry)

Do you see any differences? Well, there are a couple actually, although it doesn't seem much different from the original pattern.

Firstly I am using the contrast yarn for the ribbing. Totally intentional since I didn't have enough of the magenta.

Second, I have one row less when compared to the original chart, missing the cross over cable of purple over purple. (An accident in the first one, and intentional in the second repeat since I had to be consistent)

It totally works and is quite cozy, as was intended. I think I am going to re-visit the decreases in the adult sizes at some point in future. But this is going to have to do for now. The tail is tucked inside the hat and not woven it, so I can easily unravel it when I am ready to revisit the decreases. Who knows, there might be a top-down version too. We will see. Until next time, happy knitting/ crocheting.

ETA:

One more thing I wanted to add... Since I used left over contrast from another project for my ribbing, I had to join in a new skein. This time, instead of my usual russian join I used the double knot technique demonstrated by Jane Richmond in one of her videos. I was really surprised to see how well the thing stays together. I tugged and tugged and it won't come apart. I think this is now my new favourite join technique.

Here I have put the knot together.

Here I have cut really close to the knot and tugged a lot, but it has not come apart.

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