Jeff’s little first cousin (once removed), for whom I made the Tamarix Quilt last summer, turns 1 soon. We were invited to her first birthday party on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so after my knitting group met Saturday morning, I went and bought some yarn and got cracking on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket, as written up in The Opinionated Knitter.
This evening, it’s all over but the buttons – and possibly a collar. What can I say? I had a lot of time on my hands this weekend – a rarity in the fall.
There are many ways you can tackle this project – just check out the over 6500 pictures of this project in Flickr. Janelle has made at least two beautiful examples using self-striping yarn – one in pink and one in green – that are just lovely. I would definitely recommend doing this – striping on your own is pretty tricky. I followed a beautiful design that I saw in Ravelry using gray, mustard and green. But I was in the mood to make something ultra-girly, so I went for pinks and purples. To be more accurate, Berocco calls the colors I used Mochi (pale pink), Dewberry (reddish purple) and Petunia (dark purple). Knitting pal Melissa helped me pick out the colors. Thanks, Melissa.
A knitting buddy, Jene, advised me not to mess with EZ’s math or get too creative with this pattern. She knows what she’s talking about. Early on, I decided to do a slipped stitch chain selvedge to make a neat and tidy edge, but then I realized that this would causes problems with seaming later. EZ would have mentioned it if she though it advisable. All hail, EZ!
After I was done knitting, I couldn’t figure out how to seam horizontal garter stitch to vertical garter stitch. I found some pictures that the Yarn Harlot had posted when she made this several years back. They were quite helpful, and I think my efforts turned out nicely.
What a fun, but mind-bending project – it’s what knitting must be like for being in higher dimensions. I bought some cute pink buttons that I’m going to add on later, and I’m thinking of adding a collar, too. I’ll post more when it’s finished – and maybe even some pictures of it being modeled!
My favorite line from EZ’s instructions for this garment: “Hope you are still with me.”
I love those colors.
ReplyDeleteViola! So cute.
ReplyDelete~jene