A Little Bit of Crafting

I've always been one of those people who likes to be productive. This doesn't mean that I can't also be extremely lazy, but I just enjoy creating things--baking, knitting, cooking, sewing, art projects--it puts me in a better mood, especially if I've been, say, out of school, working at a part-time internship, and wandering around a German city for the last 12 days. Our language course started today with a placement test and introductory meet and greet type session, so fortunately I'll have more to do now (and oh so much Greek to review/catch up on). I did, however, during those 12 days of wandering, discover two knitting stores in Tuebingen, and I've been wanting a fun project to work on.

Cut to this morning, when anthropologie sent me an email about all of their fall sweaters being discounted by 25% for the next few days. Now, anthro and I have a love-hate relationship...I love their clothing and all of the creative and whimsical airs it carries with it, and I abhor their prices. Perhaps one day when I'm, you know, earning money, investing in things like that at full-price will be a legitimate option. Right now, alas it's not. To make matters worse, I came across this guy:

It's the coziest looking sweater I've ever seen with a big cowl neck wrap scarf built in, and if you know me, you know I have a serious scarf problem. Even marked down, I can't justify this, but I was suddenly struck with an interesting idea...what if I could come up with a pattern and make myself a sweater like this, with perhaps slightly heavier, cozier yarn, and maybe even a longer body? I mean, it would take a while, but yarn here seems to be inexpensive enough that I could probably buy the materials for less than the cost of the sweater, and I might be able to make a version I like even better. Plus then it's paying for knitting entertainment and the most perfect sweater I could ever imagine all in one. SO. If anybody knows (or knows someone who knows) anything about designing knitting patterns and such, please let me know! I've followed plenty of them--hats, gloves, socks, scarves, etc--but never actually designed my own...I just hope a project like this is within the reach of my skills.