Knit inspiration

I'm always finding new sources for inspiration, and ideas for things I would like to make. Sadly, I have very little free time these days (as ever) and only have time to follow through on a small percentage of my ideas. Here's one idea that has been in the back of my mind for a while now, but I haven't been able to work it out fully enough to come up with the final design.

I saw this 'Bees to Honey Cape' at Anthropologie several seasons ago. I think I was mostly attracted by the lovely gold-flecked yarn, and how textural it was. It went on sale, and though I was tempted, I kept asking myself how on earth I would work a cape into my wardrobe.
This past winter I started thinking about the cape again, and then found this free cape pattern from Drops. I even found some gold flecked yarn in the right gauge that was on sale for something like $2 a ball. It would have been a $6 Anthropologie knock-off! But again, back to the impracticality of a cape issue. The mini-cape isn't quite substantial enough to keep you cold in the winter, yet it's more of an outerwear kind of idea, so I might feel silly wearing around work. I resisted my consumerist sale-driven tendency, and decided to make something I was certain I would wear instead.

This week, the idea came up again when I found this fantastic 80s sweater coat from slipteasevintage. I love the texture, shape, and color of it. I'm so tempted to buy it, but I'm not sure that my personal style is funky enough to be able to pull this one off.


However, now I'm thinking that I could combine the elements and feelings of these three garments to make a new design that is both unique and wearable. A less stylized, more practical version. I think that would suit me perfectly.