Deviating from the pattern.......

I'm making a lot of progress on the Throw. It's now to the point that I have over 410 (worsted weight) stitches all held on a 47"circ. It's kind of crowded on that needle. (see where the 'points' meet? that's the middle of the blanket, the blanket is now at 32" diameter) I also stopped following the pattern about 8 rounds ago. I'm into the Feather and Fan section now, and I've decided to change the rest of the pattern. At this point, it's just small, insignificant things I'm not doing, that you can't even tell I'm not doing . I'm going to continue in this feather and fan pattern for a few more inches, then I'm going to change to a dark cream color (almost tan, but not quite) and keep the F&F pattern going for a few inches, and then I'll switch back to red and continue for a few inches, and then I'm going to switch to a very pretty dark blue and do a garter stitch border.