Sweater Design for Dummies

At what point does modifying a pattern become your own design? I'm curious. I decided to make the Dreamy Turtleneck from the book Hip to Knit. It's a slim fitting, shaped sweater with a big turtleneck. I got Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool which is a DK yarn. The pattern calls for a worsted so I recalculated it to work with my new gauge, sizing it down about an inch in the chest from the pattern's smallest size. I knit the body on circular needles instead of flat. When I got to the sleeves, I decided that the pattern's sleeves would be too big for that style on my scrawny arms so I had to do some calculations for the sleeve cap.

After all that, I got the first sleeve sewed on and decided that I like the neckline how it is and don't want to add the turtleneck. My feelings could still change but now, it's a wide scoop neck that I really like. I need to put an edging on it, either a few rows of 1x1 rib or single crochet. In the end, it doesn't look a thing like the pattern but I like it a lot.

I haven't knit a lot this week. I did a bit on Lucky this morning and finished up that sleeve but that's all. I need to finish a felted bag for a gift this week (not mentioning who or what it's for in case she's reading this!) so I'll probably cast on for that this afternoon or tomorrow. I think I'm going to do the Sophie bag with doubled up yarn to make it go faster. I have to go out of town for a couple of days this week so I could probably get that done on the plane.

The Cats are in the Elite 8! We had what was to be a tough matchup against Utah last night and their player Andrew Bogut, a 7 foot All American who may be the #1 draft pick in the NBA this year. He's a bigtime scorer but also a great passer. Tubby's gameplan was brilliant. He played Bogut straight up, knowing that there is no way Bogut had faced a team with 3 7 footers, like we have and that he can hurt you most by getting the other players involved if you double or triple team him. Bogut scored 18 and had 11 rebounds but his shooting percentage was way down and no one else scored more than 10. Bogut had no assists.

I have to say that I despise this Utah team. I always liked them when Majerus was at the helm. His team played with a lot of class. Bogut talked smack the whole week, and our inside guys didn't particularly like hearing that he'd "punish" them. This Utah team played thug ball much of the night, and their comments postgame refuse to give UK any credit. They act as though Bogut got a ton of great looks at the basket but his shots weren't falling. They weren't falling much of the time because our big guys were playing great defense and forcing him to alter his shot. Utah didn't hit their free throws but neither did UK. The Utes looked so tired in the second half, and when you are tired, free throw shooting goes downhill.

The so-called analysts (I'm not talking to you Seth Davis. My dogs could give a better game analysis than you) are giving us NO credit, and I love it. No one except Jay Bilas (*swoon* even if he is a Dookie) has picked us to go to the Final Four. Most analysts picked Cincinnati and Utah to win the games over us and most are picking Michigan State in Sunday's games. We're the most overlooked #2 seed in the tournament. All of the other #2's and 2 of the #1's are at home watching the games on TV now.

GO BIG BLUE!!!