Creatively interpretting other people's music is... yes, I've heard that people do that :-p (otherwise why would anyone want multiple recordings of the same piece) but I never achieved the skill level on the piano to do it (and, er, I'm bad at understanding it - but I'm bad at careful listening to music in general).

Maybe there is a similar thing in knitting, maybe it involves subtle changes to the pattern to make it fit better? or look more 'you'? or choice of colour? (even I can pick colours, and not even often the colour in the picture...)