Why do I do this?

I am knitting a little sleeveless hoodie for little bear. It is designed to have stripes. I am zooming up the back. It is lovely and light on my shoulder.

1. Why can I never stick to the yarn that is mentioned. If someone mentions that a pattern should be in a particular yarn I automatically try and work out what to substitute it with. If someone designed a pattern to be knitted in cheap acrylic I would probably start researching Wholegrain Manila.

2. If something is in a particular colour, why do I always have to change it? Okay, I haven't changed much this time. It is in main colour grey, which I have kept, but instead of having lime green and dark purple stripes I have substituted royal blue and scarlet. I like to think I have the more tasteful idea, but each to their own. However no matter what they suggest, I have always got to try something different.

3. Why do I always fiddle with the pattern. I am following the instructions for 3 years size because little bear's chest is about four inches smaller than the measurement given and my tension errs on the generous side. But when I came to shape the armholes it looked a bit short. So I added a few extra rows in the end, after much dithering and measuring of little bear's t-shirts. Of course, being me I bought enough yarn for two hoodies, one with a royal blue hood and one with a red hood (little bear currently likes red but the wind might change any day now). The original superwash merino was in fifty gram balls and I needed 150g for each top in grey. So I bought 3 x 100g balls of the acrylic (lovely quality, soft and really washable) for two. But now I've gone and added a few extra rows in grey. I may need more yarn than allowed for. The next size up needed 200g of grey so there is not much wiggle room. I am considering knocking two rows off each armhole edging, as I don't think it will be too noticeable.

4. Why can't I count the dratted rows properly. I now have a red stripe two rows out because I was too busy dithering about whether or not to lengthen the dratted hoodie to mark the rows properly. Drat, darn and poot. I can either undo back, including all the armhole shaping or make sure I add the extra two rows to the front to make sure that the stripes line up.

Knitting relaxes me. Honest.