Modification Monday: Herrington Mittens

Original Pattern: Herrington

Knitter Extraordinaire: Cherie (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Created mittens to match the original cowl, using the stitch on a smaller scale and integrating it into a mitten, as well as over the first half of the thumb, and a speckled design on the back of the thumb. Project page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: It's always a compliment to the designer when people create a matching accessory for an existing pattern, because it shows that the original pattern was so compelling, you just have to knit something else using this great design. I love Cherie's mittens- they are so striking and modern, and I love her solution for using the chevron design on half the thumb, with the speckles on  the other side. Cherie's matching mittens are a stunning compliment to her winter wardrobe, for sure.

Modification Monday: Baltic Burrard

Original Pattern: Burrard 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Blair (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Turned the original cardigan pattern into a pullover. Project page with more information can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love Blair's cardigan-to-pullover mod for selfish reasons- I prefer knitting pullovers to cardigans.  Her simple take on this is great- she knit the front same as the back until she got to where she wanted the neckline to begin, and bound off the center. Adding a lovely ribbed neck edging, and voila- lovely cardigan to perfectly gorgeous pullover.

Modification Monday: Red & Blue

Original Pattern: b16-10 Jacket with raglan sleeves in pattern

Knitter Extraordinaire: Hanna (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Changed the design of the fair isle details, added them to the cuffs and hem, as well as knitted it in the round and steeked. More details on her project page, here.

What Makes This Awesome:  I love Hanna's bright, happier re-visioning of this beautiful baby sweater. I love that she chose to do her own fair isle design, which can be tricky to balance, but all 4 colours she chose work wonderfully together.  She also chose to carry the designs down to the hem and cuffs fo the sweater, and you've got to respect someone who knits it in the round and steeks even when the pattern doesn't call for it- that must be why those button bands look so perfect! Utterly flawless.

Modification Monday: Sheepy Cardigan 2.0

Original Pattern: Strokkur

Knitter Extraordinaire: Jane (Ravelry ID,  blog)

Mods: transformed the original pullover into a zipper-front cardigan, and added a hood. And customized the fit to be just right! Details can be found on her project page, here.

What Makes This Awesome: I don't often see a mod where a knitter decided to steek when no steeking was originally required, but Jane did just that- steeked the pullover to make not just a cardigan, but a zippered cardigan. How many knitters feel comfortable steeking AND sewing in a zipper into a knit?! These are some crazy good knitting skills. But let's talk about that hood for a second- It's perfectly proportioned to the sweater, and I love that she included a bit of the colourwork from the yoke into the top of the hood.  I bet she gets a lot of wear out of this fantastic cardigan because if it were mine, I'd wear it all the time.

Modification Monday: Holloway

Original Pattern: Holloway Pullover

Knitter Extraordinaire: Emma (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Customized the shaping entirely- adjusted at the waist, and bust darts, and the sleeves. To have more minimal finishing, she picked up stitches to knit some of the pieces. Project page with great details on her mods can be found, here.

What Makes This Awesome: Amy Herzog designs knits that encourage all knitters to really customize their knits based on being very aware of what really works for their body type.  It's one thing to add waist shaping, but Ill wager that for most knitters, bust darts are not something they typically knit, much less then make modifications on! The final result is gorgeous, fits Emma perfectly, and looks amazing. This knit definitely has me thinking about knitted bust darts, as I have yet to knit a sweater that has them. Maybe I need to give it a try!

Modification Monday: Calypso Plaits and Links

Original Pattern: Plaits and Links Cardigan 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Shaulaine (Ravelry ID, blog) 

Mods: Added a hood with a cable design in keeping with the original pattern, added waist shaping, adjusted the sleeves to be more slim. Full details on her project page, here.

What Makes This Awesome: I don't often see a cardigan turned into a hoodie, and this is a knock out. The original pattern features lots of lovely cables, but is quite boxy. I love Shaulaine's take on this, making it more fitted and adding the hood. It really emphasizes the great cables and details, and I love that she  extended the small braided cable around the edge of the hood. It's the perfect cabled hoodie!

Modification Monday: Cabletta Wannabe

Original Pattern:  Cabletta Cardigan 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Momo (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Transformed the original worsted weight cardigan pattern into a stunning DK weight dress. This meant customizing all the shaping within the cables, and designing the skirt to keep in pattern. Project page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love the idea of knitted dress, and yet somehow the only one I own is a maternity sweater dress (store bought, I confess). But this dress is the kind of custom beauty that would have everyone who sees you asking where you got this stunning dress. I love how Momo took the original idea and ran with it.The details on the bodice flowing down into the skirt are beautiful and well thought out and look completely at home in this re-imagining of the design. Just an absolute knockout!

Modification Monday: Peter's Baby Sweater

Original Pattern: Peony Sweater

Knitter Extraordinaire: Tilde (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Changed the adult-sized pattern into a baby sweater, using a baby sweater structure in the same book. Project Page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love seeing adult patterns changed into baby and kid knits, but this is particularly interesting because of the size of the design- the peony flowers are large and intricate, and I feel like their beauty has more emphasis on such a small sweater, because you see the detail of each bloom so clearly. I also love the balance of how the design is thoroughly carried around the body of the sweater, and choosing textured sleeves instead of patterned sleeves is a smart choice. Every decision Tilde made on this sweater is perfection!

Modification Monday: Owl Be Home for Christmas

Original Pattern: Owl Puffs

Knitter Extraordinaire: Susan (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Added wings, sweater,  scarf, and winter-themed buttons to make ornaments. Project page with wonderfully detailed instructions on the mods can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: These little owls would be an awesome gift for just about anyone! I love the addition of the wings (especially the little present button sewn to the wing of the red owl), and the sweater and scarf are perfection. When it comes to small knits like this, the little details can take something good to something amazing- and a great way to show off some very fun buttons. Now I want to make these! And considering how small they are, totally doable before the holidays....

Modification Monday: Caramel

Original Pattern: Caramel 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Wendy (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Changed the originally DK weight cardigan into a bulky weight, added creative striping to make this a destash project, and shortened the sleeves.  Project page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love that this was a destash project, because it totally does not look like a destash project at all- the stripes and colour blocked top and bottom look so well thought out, it's hard to image that it was the original intention of the designer! The yarn for this was leftover from three previous sweaters that Wendy knitted, so she combined them and upsized the gauge to make it work, and went with short sleeves to accommodate her yardage. What a fabulous result!

Modification Monday: Mosaic Mitts

Original Pattern: Endpaper Mitts

Knitter Extraordinaire: Shawn (Ravelry ID)

Mods: changed the original design for a colour-shifting mosaic design, to use up 5 yards of 31 colours from a Knit Picks palette sampler. Great details can be found on the project page, here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love how Shawn came up with this idea- using up 5 yards of so many different colours isn't something you typically see on a wearable project like this. I'm super impressed with the colour shifts,  It seems very natural- earth tones moving to greens and blues, it turned out so beautifully. I'm utterly blown away!

Modification Monday: Framed Cowl

Original Pattern: Framed Slouch 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Jane (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Changed the original hat pattern into a cozy cowl. Project page with great details on how to modify can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: If you have ever wanted to modify a pattern but too nervous to know where to start, then this is the mod for you. Jane started with a hat design she loved, and just added repeats of the chart, without any decreasing for the crown. Simple, but super effective- This cowl is stunning! Are there any hat patterns you know of that would be beautiful cowls? You should try this mod!

Modification Monday: DROPS-Durrow-Nubby Cardigan

Original Pattern: 109-3 jacket in ”Alaska” with cables, raglan sleeves and hood

Knitter Extraordinaire: Christy (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Customized the cables from two other patterns- Darrow and Nubby Cardigan, and upsized it from Aran to bulky weight yarn. Project page is here.

What Makes This Awesome: To mash up three different patterns like this is a huge undertaking, so I truly admire Christy's brave approach on this. The cardigan is amazing, but she's frank in her project notes about where things were a bit more challenging than she was expecting. There are a lot of great lessons to be learned from another knitter who undertook a project and comment son the parts that aren't quite right- those are the things you need to think about if you are working on a similar project. \event though there were challenges, the finished sweater is stunning, and the cables she chose are pitch perfect. I love it more than the original pattern. Just look at the details!

Modification Monday: Charlie's Hat

Original Pattern: Cupcake 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Kim (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Upsized the original baby hat to be kid-sized, added ribbing, ear flaps, and changed the gauge to a heavier yarn. Project page with great details can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love Kim's approach, because it works for both kids and adult hats- start with the shape you want (in this case, a fun, cabled, ear flap hat that ties under the chin) and you can work with a design that speaks to you to customize to the shape you want. Changing the yarn gauge to something heavier helps a lot when upsizing, and the extra ribbing (which ties in perfectly with the cables) adds depth to the crown and the ear flaps are worked at the sides in garter stitch for added warmth. The resulting hat is perfectly customized and looks fantastic!

Modification Monday: Montague

Original Pattern: Montague Bulky Lace Vest 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Blair (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Lengthened the body, added sleeves, shortened the collar ribbing,  and added a single button closure. Details can be found on her project page, here. 

What Makes This Awesome: I guess since I'm not much of a vest person, I didn't give the original pattern much thought when I first saw it. Then I saw Blair's gorgeous mauve sweater, and I was suddenly dying to find out what pattern she used! I love the added sleeves to this to a beautiful bulky cardigan- they look like they fit perfectly and are in tune with the rest of the design. Adding a button for closure gives the sweater a little more warmth on chilly days. Now that I've seen Blair's, I want a cardigan just like this! 

Modification Monday: Turning Leaves

Original Pattern: Adhara

Knitter Extraordinaire: Sarah (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Changed the triangular shawl to a crescent shape, and used two gradient yarns. Great details on the modification can be found on her project page, here. 

What Makes This Awesome: It is not very often I see a shape change on a shawl at all, but I love this change to a crescent. The modification is small, but has big impact- the crescent shape is a modern and casual take on the classic triangular shawl, and it's a great change (or even from a crescent to a triangular shape!)  to make on a pattern that has a short row count in the lace repeat. And with the original two-colour pattern, having it knit in two gradient yarns means it looks like it's a lot more complex. The results are stunning!

Modification Monday: Ravine

Original Pattern: Ravine 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Anna (Ravelry ID)

Mods: Changed the neckline to a scoop; customized the fit at every step, moving between sizes for bust and hip, and adding vertical dart shaping. Project page with more details can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love Anna's totally customized approach to this sweater, because she is adhering to what I believe to be the first and most important law of knitting a well-fitting garment: know thyself. She knew exactly what her measurements were and what sort of fit works well with her body, and she went about creating a stunning sweater that suits her to a T. Not to mention that I'm always a fan of a scoop or v neck, since it is almost always more flattering. You can't argue with these results- great fit, gorgeous knit.

Modification Monday: Fake Thrummed Mitts

Original Pattern: Classic Mittens 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Julie (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Created a faux-thrum look with a a bulky weight yarn for the 'thrums' and upped the gauge of the mitten from DK to worsted. Also chose to knit mittens flat and seam them afterwards. Project page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I am crazy about these mittens. Seriously. I even love that she knitted them flat and seamed them, just because seaming is practically avant-garde these days in the land of modern knitting. Just look at the picture below where you can see those beautiful rainbow-y floats! Swoon. This mod is an excellent way to use an amazing chunky/bulky weight yarn in a busy colourway- against the simple pale grey backdrop of stockinette, the little dots of colour just sing. I love this streamlined approach to a faux-thrummed mitten. Now I want a pair just like them!

Modification Monday: Striped Cardigan with Colorwork

Original Pattern: Driftwood 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Kristen (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Changed the original striped pullover into a cardigan with fair isle borders, knit in the round and steeked. Colorwork design and color scheme from the Sunshine Bag pattern from the book Classic Elite Quick Knits. Project is blogged here, and her Ravelry project page is here.

What Makes This Awesome: Oh, there are so many things I love about Kristen's approach to this happy, lovely sweater. This cardigan shows that stripes and fair isle can totally work together brilliantly.  The bright colours and fair isle are nicely balanced by the monochromatic stripes. I love the fun little hit of fair isle at the hem and cuffs, but not right at the edge of the hem and cuffs- brought up slightly and worked so well into the existing stripes that it looks like it was meant to be. Perfection!

Modification Monday: Hedgehog Love Cardi

Original Pattern: Hedgehog Love Scarf 

Knitter Extraordinaire: Samantha (Ravelry ID, blog)

Mods: Wanted to create a baby sweater and have the design feature four sets of the the hedgehogs, so created a top down raglan baby sweater (no pattern!) and customized the gauge to make sure the chart would fit the way she wanted. Project page can be found here.

What Makes This Awesome: I love that Samantha basically designed her own baby sweater! Using the hedgehog charts as a jumping off point, she customized a great little raglan and adjusted the gauge so that the charts would line up the way she wanted- with one set of hedgehogs on each side of the front, and four ont he back. I love the way she made this- it's a fabulous baby sweater design!