Adventures in Following and Not Following a Pattern

This is a closeup of a not-very-good-to-begin-with picture of the sleeveless top from Lily Chin's The Urban Knitter. It knits up very easily and looks great. I started it with dark blue Katia brand nylon "bufalo" ribbon yarn, but got so frustrated with the twisting ribbon that I switched over and knitted it up with Lion Brand angora blend I found on sale, in black. I've found the angora blend too itchy to wear without something underneath, and too hot with something underneath, so far. I think it's better for winter wear, under a jacket. The bufalo yarn is super soft, but I had to switch right and wrong sides -- with the angora, I liked the more subtle stripes shown in the picture, but with the ribbon yarn this side looked a little too messy. I also switched the order of the increases, doing the set of 5 increases every 8 rows first, and then 3 increases every 6 rows, because I wasn't entirely satisfied with how it hung according to the pattern. I think now I would even do 2 inches with no increases at all, then start the increases every 8 rows, then every 6. But in any case, I like this pattern enough that I think I'm going to make still another version in cotton! Update: still haven't made it again in any yarn, but did finally got a few photos to turn out.