Mods Gone Wild! Kouki Cardigan Edition

I'm working on a very lofty interpretation of the fantastic Kouki Piloto Cardigan by Kyoko Nakayoshi of Cotton and Cloud.

Too cute!

Disclaimer:
I'm a huge fan of modifications and taking creative control. HOWEVER, I think it is even more important to honor the designer's original work. I realized after I started this that there are no other projects listed on Ravelry for this pattern... and I am completely embarrassed! I've set aside yarn and am going to knit this as written ASAP. Kyoko Nakayoshi is one of my favorite designers, and I feel so bad to have overlooked this.

But for now, back to the project.

The hobbly-gobbly experiment I mentioned is to create a toddler cardigan that honors the San Francisco Giants and their 2012 World Series win. (Hooray!)

Read up on it!

Mods started as:

• Change color to Giants colors, with style to match a baseball jacket
• Lining the jacket with some Giants fleece

This was a sketch of my original idea:

It took a while to find the right pattern to modify. (I was not up for completely fabricating a design. Why reinvent the wheel? I need all the experience I can get.)
As previously mentioned I'm a sucker for all things Kyoko Nakayoshi, so when I discovered her Kouki pattern it was hard to NOT pick it. She had just published it and I LOVE knitting her designs for the sheer process of it, not just the beautiful outcome.

However, I ran into a few issues with the mods I wanted. Can you tell? Here's the nearly finished product:

I basically got everything I asked for, but had to make a few compromises along the way. (Which involved a lot of re-doing!)

There is still a bit of work to be done, but I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully will update with more pictures soon!