Category: knitting

I’ve been steadily plugging away on the Baby Surprise Jacket, and I’m finally seeing some real progress. For a few days, my pattern seemed to be that I had to rip and reknit two rows out of every four, because I kept sailing by one of the pairs of increases. When I miss a single increase, I can make it up even a few rows later by crocheting down, but double increases make the tension far too ugly. At least I kept catching the problems quickly (I’m using the row-by-row chart, crossing off rows as I work, and counting regularly), but it’s made this project feel like more of a slog than fun. Because of the increases, each row is longer than the last, so that probably doesn’t help my sense of progress.

I took photos of the construction so far, but the light here has been horrible and they’re all yellow and flashy. Sorry. I tried retaking them, but the March clouds are just too persistent. (We are so ready for summer!)

Here’s the unfolded blob on the needles:

I’m at the point where you put the two fronts on holders and just work on the back and bottoms of the front for a while. The cast on edge is the trapezoid at the top – the top edge plus the two sloping edges at the sides. You can see diagonal lines coming in from the top corners – the decreases for the sleeves, and then slanting back out the other way – the increases for the body. Because of the increases and decreases, it’s impossible to lie this flat, so there are folds of fabric on the right and left sides.

Now, if you fold the sleeves in half (the cuffs are the sloping cast on edges) so that the seam will run across the top of the arms and shoulders, you get a jacket. Huh.

Here’s the back:

It’s a cleverly designed pattern and shape. I’m not sure if I’ll really knit this again, once might be plenty, but it certainly was a puzzle to work on until my eyes adjusted to the construction.

There are some patterns that it feels like everyone must knit (this feeling has only been magnified now that people can track their projects on Ravelry, and you can see the thousands of versions of the same sweater or scarf). Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket is one of those patterns. It’s unusual in that it was published in the late 60’s (most of the bandwagon projects have been published online in the last few years).

In theory it’s a simple knit, because it’s all garter stitch. The odd part is the construction – the cardigan-style sweater is knit in one piece – you cast on along the line that runs from the cuffs of the sleeves, along the top of the arms, and across the back of the neck. You strategically decrease for a while, switch to strategically increasing, and then bind off along the line that extends down the middle on one side of the front, around the bottom of the back, and then up the other side of the front. The directions are easy to follow, but trying to envision the finished pattern as you work is truly mind-bending.

Here’s my progress at the end of the decreases:

The right and left sides are the completed sleeves. Ultimately, I’ll fold the bottom edges of the sleeves up to the top and seam them to make the shoulders and the top of the sleeves. I think I finally understand what I’m doing, but it’s very convoluted. Based on other people’s gauges and results, I think this will turn out to be a 6-9 month size – perfect for early next spring. I wasn’t entirely sure about the purple (I think I’ll probably omit it in the next two balls), but otherwise I love the yarn – a very soft washable cotton with interesting and pretty color variation.

Most of my knitting time was in the airports (I try to sleep on planes) and in the evenings before bed, but I still made a lot of progress on the Peapod Sweater (just need to find buttons! Something in the brown/orange/red spectrum?) and the beginnings of the matching hat!

This picture makes me want to squint it’s so bright, and yet it was taken at 9:30 in the morning when the sun was just starting to climb. We both managed to avoid burning (yay, 45 SPF) and came back with tan lines, so it felt like a successful vacation. 🙂

I finished the body on the Pea Pod sweater last night. As you can see, the back and fronts are knit in one piece, with sleeves and the collar added later. The front is asymmetrical, with the leaf lace panel roughly centered and the closure to the side of it.

I’m thinking buttons somewhere in the brown to orange spectrum will look great. I started the first sleeve, and aside from some mixups in the lace, it’s been flying. (I should know better than to knit the first few rows of lace patterns while reading, it always goes awry.)

I’m debating what to knit next after this. We have friends getting married in Costa Rica, and we’re going to have a beach vacation. (Can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to the sun!) I’m guessing I’ll run out of things to knit on this within a day or so of arriving, so I need more vacation knitting. My top candidate has been the Baby Surprise Jacket, but I didn’t realize you couldn’t buy the pattern directly from Ravelry. 🙁 We’ll be going on vacation before the mail-order version could arrive, and I’m opposed to buying any more Elizabeth Zimmermann books. (I keep giving in and buying them based on one pattern that I like, but the two that include the BSJ are quite a bit more expensive and I’m just not that big a fan of the rest of the patterns.) I put a hold on it at the library, but the next book’s due date is the same day our flight leaves, so that seems really unlikely to pan out well. Barring some library miracle, I think I’ll probably give up on the BSJ for now, and instead use the Yarn Harlot’s Daisy sweater as a base and incorporate some sort of fun “interest” out of Knitting on the Edge? And use cotton out of stash, since wool won’t be as nice to knit on the beach? Decisions…

These photos are already two weeks old, but I finally finished and blocked the first baby sweater. Ready? Awww:

I found the pattern on Ravelry, and made some adjustments (changed gauge from Worsted to DK, added the stripes). The construction was completely confusing to me at first (I was having trouble figuring out from the photos how the side slits and ties worked), but I really like the end result.

It took a few tries to get my tension right on the diagonal lace – it wasn’t very stretchy, I was knitting in cotton (which is non-elastic), and the color changes complicated the issue – but I finally got the hang of it and it looks great after blocking.
Here’s the back:

This set of photos is finally accurate on the color. The vinegar washes appear to have done the trick to prevent bleeding (knock on wood).

The pattern called this a 6 month size but it looks so small. We’ll see? Now it can just be tucked away to wait for next fall.

I’m starting to feel like if I don’t speak up soon on the blog, the plethora of baby knitting projects will soon give it away: I’m pregnant. 🙂 I’m just shy of four months, and due mid-August. January was a long month (while Kevin was busy renovating rooms and keeping the fish going, I ate cheerios and snoozed on the couch, waking up just long enough to take a photo of whatever he was up to), but I seem to be improving on the energy front and the knitting has commenced in earnest. 🙂 We won’t know gender for another month or so, but I have several patterns that would work quite well either way, so those are at the top of the list in the meantime.

I finished the kimono baby sweater last week, but I haven’t blocked it yet. I thought to test the yarn for color-fastness only after I’d made quite a bit of progress, so of course the darker one bleeds. Oops. Not ideal for a striped sweater. I’ve been soaking it in cold water and vinegar baths which seems to be helping. I’m going to try it in hot water tomorrow, so fingers crossed. I’ll get photos as soon as it’s blocked.

In the meantime, I’ve started knitting Kate Gilberts’ Pea Pod sweater, shown here with the tulips in the morning sunshine:

I love the yarn (Provence – a really nice DK cotton). The body is knit in one piece, starting with a leaf rib, and then it switches to mostly stockinette with a lace panel. It feels like I keep only making it through a row or two at a time, but the progress is starting to feel noticeable. Here’s a closeup of about 6″ of the leaf ribbing.

I finished the back and one front of the kimono-style baby sweater I’ve been working on. The yarn continues to be impossible to photograph – this color is closer, but a bit too yellow. Unblocked, it’s curling madly (to be expected, but it’s making it look even smaller than it is. I’m always surprised how tiny 6-month clothes are. Here’s the back:

And the front:

The diagonal edging was a bit of a headache, since it isn’t particularly stretchy. Combine that with cotton yarn (ie. no elasticity) and the typical colorwork tension issues, and I had to rip back several times. The second front is going much faster, though. I did a preliminary block and the pucker you can see in this photo disappeared. Yay!

Within moments of blocking Kevin’s hat, I was already swatching for my next project. I’ve had this yarn sitting in my stash for ages, and finally came up with a perfect idea for it. The ball band called for #6 needles, so I cast on and away I went, then realized the resulting fabric was far too loose. Oops. I went down to #5 needles, then #4, and finally #3 before everything seemed like the proper fit.

The good news is that the gauge is now a perfect DK, which will make the math nice and easy. (I’m loosely following a pattern, but it was written for worsted yarn.)

I’m planning to switch off in 2 row stripes, which I think will look great. My only concern is that the darker color seems prone to bleeding, and I want this to be machine-washable. The ball band says something about doing the first wash in vinegar – will that set the color? Prevent bleeding?

The colors above are quite a bit off. This photo is closer, but both yarns are a little bit more teal and less blue, and less saturated than they appear in this photo.