Baby Sweater Update

Remember the his-and-hers baby sweaters I knit last summer?  Here is baby girl in her sweater.  She is about 3 months old:

I haven’t seen it in person, but this photo makes it look like there is plenty of grow room.  Plus, garter stitch is extremely stretchy.  The only strange thing is that the sleeves are awfully short.  I’ve noticed this with the BSJ before.  But as a mother, I have to say that I think that’s fine.  Sleeves that are too long can be frustrating for babies, and frankly, she’s probably warm enough swathed in all that wooly goodness!

I wish I could reach through the screen and squeeze those cheeks – don’t you?

Baby Boy BSJ

While out of town, I managed to knit another BSJ out of a more boyish colorway.  This is Knit Picks Felici Sport yarn in color “Ecology,” from which I already have a pair of socks.  Doesn’t the resulting fabric look different? The baby jacket has a tweedier effect, I think.  Just as before, I used slightly over 2 balls of Felici.  The buttons are understated, but not quite as neutral as the ones I used on the Neapolitan version: Also note how that diagonal line looks.  I used a different increase technique on this BSJ –for the double increase, I did LRinc – Knit – LLinc (LRinc = Cat Bordhi’s Leaning Right increase and LLinc is obviously the Leaning Left increase).

For the girlish version, I used the double increase specified by Elizabeth Zimmermann: Slip 1, K2tog, PSSO. The diagonal line looks very different, see?I can’t decide which one I prefer.

In other knitting news, I’m almost done with Boy 1’s soon-to-be-electrified socks – I should be able to share those in the next day or two.  And I popped into three LYSs in North Carolina.  I only bought one skein of yarn, though – this lovely Bearfoot from Mountain Colors.This colorway is called Thunderstorm, and it is mostly a deep purple with bits of greyish teal and olive green.  Very moody.  I’ve knit with Bearfoot twice before and really like it.  In fact, the very first pair of socks I made for myself was out of Bearfoot.  They are lovely socks, though a bit large (because I was knitting on – gasp! – size TWO needles then).  This yarn makes EXTREMELY warm socks – it is a 3-ply composed of 60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon.  I wear my pair in the deepest days of winter, over another pair of thin cotton socks (because the handknit socks are roomy).  I don’t see Bearfoot in shops that often, so I didn’t think too long before deciding to purchase it.  Mmmm, take a closer look: Next: I want to whip up a quick hat to take to Sock Summit for Eloise’s baby shower.  Will dive into stash for that…

Baby Girl BSJ

I was done knitting this weeks ago, but I finally seamed the top of the arms and found some buttons.  All done!The buttons are kind of light brown and cream, like chocolate and vanilla ice cream swirled together – a perfect match for a yarn called Neapolitan.  Because the stripes are fairly bold, I didn’t want buttons that would compete with them.  Lord knows there are plenty of cutesy kid buttons on the market – little bugs, butterflies, legos, etc – in every shade of pink imaginable.  None looked right.  I’m happy with this subtler choice!

Just a reminder – this was knit with Knit Picks Felici Sport (on a US 4 needle) and it took me slightly over 2 balls to do it.  So if you buy yarn for this, buy 3 balls!  I’m going to make another one using my Ecology colorway.  I only have 2 fresh balls, but since I’ve already made a pair of socks out of it, I have some leftovers that should be enough to finish the project.

BSJ

Have you knit a Baby Surprise Jacket yet?  The origami at the end is the coolest part.  Here is how it works:

Remember I bought FOUR balls of Felici sportweight yarn to make this.  I used a smidge over 2 balls.  Good to know!

WIP WIP WIP

I’ve got several things on the needles at the moment, receiving various levels of attention from me.

First, remember the knee socks I started?  They have progressed a tiny bit… but not much.  Here is how they look right now: I’m sure if I could just be diligent enough to get past the 38-round colorwork section, they would move much faster.  I would transfer them to 2 circs, for sure!  I really don’t care for working socks on dpns.

Next, I started a BSJ for a coworker who is due in August.  She decided not to find out the baby’s sex, though, and these are girly colors.  So I may have to knit a boy-something, too!  This is Felici sportweight in color “Neopolitan” And finally, I’ve begun a new sock.  It’s not the sock I meant to start, though.  I had a weird wave of guilt for not having used all the sock yarn I bought at Sock Summit 2009 and resolved to knit another skein.  I picked this yarn (Briar Rose Fibers Grace), and I found Anne Hanson’s Keukenhof pattern (I purchased them both at the Briar Rose Fibers booth and they were meant to go together).  I wound up the yarn but couldn’t get excited about the pattern. 

So I went looking through my box of random stuff in the studio (I know you have one, too) and came up with the Swirls pattern.  It said to cast on 70 stitches.  I was skeptical.  But I proceeded anyway.  Sure enough, 70 is too many.  I ripped.  Then I rewrote the pattern for 64 stitches and began again.  I didn’t love it.  I ripped.  Then I got out some books to look for inspiration, and I ran across this lovely:

I got this for Christmas (I think) a couple years ago.  Maybe from Steven?  I drooled over it but never made anything.  Armed with post-its, I went through it again, and marked many beautiful patterns.  I decided that Tsunami would be about right, fairly simple but not too boring.  You can’t see it very well in this photo, but this is one of the pictures from the book:

And at the last moment, I decided that the yarn I had wound wasn’t perfect for this pattern, so I grabbed something entirely different – some solid purple Cherry Tree Hill yarn I’ve had in stash forever (from a long ago SSYC sale).  I’ve turned the heel on sock #1 and this is how it looks today:I love how the cable is so loose and gentle - just a ripple in the fabric - and how the cable is framed by the reverse stockinette diamonds.

What are you knitting right now?

FO - BSJ for Baby Alice

The BSJ is done! Kris and I made a quick trip out to Needle & Thread yesterday and found some (washable) buttons that worked with this sweater, and I sewed them on as soon as we got home.

Notes & Modifications:

• For the double decreases, I used EZ’s original instructions: slip 1, k2tog, PSSO.


• For the double increases, I used Cat Bordhi’s LLinc and LRinc rather than M1. Specifically, each double increase was created with LRinc, K, LLinc.


• I used worsted weight yarn on size 7 needles, but followed the BSJ instructions exactly. (The A-B-C-SJ pattern recently released from Schoolhouse Press includes BSJ numbers at varying gauges, so that a knitter can create the original BSJ size with a larger gauge if desired. I had a larger gauge, but since I wanted a larger sweater, I disregarded this table on page 7.) I had 25 grams of yarn left over.


• My gauge was about 4.25-4.5 st/in in garter.


• Final measurements on my version: 13.25” from top of shoulder to bottom edge of sweater, 21” wingspan (horizontal measurement from one cuff edge to the other), 22.5” circumference in body portion of the sweater.

Will this fit Baby Alice, who will be 6 months old at Christmastime? I'll keep you posted.

Did you notice the cute gift tag on this sweater? I just discovered these over at laylock.org. You can purchase a downloadable collection of gift tags, notecards, stickers, bookmarks, and more ... or just download the free gift tags. I printed these on card stock and cut them out. I ran across them quite serendipitously - I wrapped up two gifts yesterday and used these tags on both of them. Remember the scarf I knitted for my mom last January? It gets shipped off this week, as her birthday is nigh.

I'd better publish this while I can. We had a brief power outage yesterday that apparently fried our hard drive (despite the power surge protector strip, which, yes, was on and connected correctly). I'm typing this on our old computer, which needed all kinds of updates to do the most basic of things. I'm using Blogger to post this, which seems so clunky compared to the Windows Live Writer tool I've been using lately. I didn't install Live Writer on the old computer because doing so required some service pack updates that would take forever to download. I'm kind of grumpy about the whole business because I keep thinking of things on that hard drive that we didn't back up. Fortunately, we backed up all the photos recently - between the external hard drive and what's still on my camera, I have no loss of coverage. And the photos are the most important things. I keep telling myself that. But all my non-photo knitting files - journal pages, downloaded patterns, and (gasp) my sock yarn spreadsheet ... I think they're all gone. Let us have a moment of silence, please.

Or, go back up your own hard drive and THEN have a moment of silence for mine. :)

Origami

I finished knitting the BSJ last night.  I held off on the seaming so I could show you the “surprise” part of Baby Surprise Jacket.

The BSJ is essentially a garter stitch rectangle with some increases and decreases that make it look like some sort of ray* rippling across the ocean floor.  Here is the wrong side:

And the right side:

Then, a little folding, and you see the sweater: This project seems very Japanese.  The cut of the cardigan is stark and simple, and the folding is reminiscent of origami.  The seam (still to be sewn) is along the top of the sleeve.

Notice that there are buttonholes on both sides of the cardigan opening.  You’re supposed to sew buttons over one set of buttonholes.  I gather that this was a common strategy back when one didn’t know whether a baby would be a boy or a girl, and when people actually remembered the “proper” button placement for each sex.  I don’t think that matters so much now.  I went ahead and knit all the buttonholes to help me sew them on in the exact right place.

I considered skipping the buttonholes and knitting an i-cord edging with ties at the neck (as with the Tulips Baby Cardigan) … but in the end, I decided to knit it exactly as written the first time.  I’m sure I’ll modify something the next time I knit this.  The down side of this decision is that I need to go button shopping before I can finish the project.

Yarn Review: This yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted (100% superwash wool).  The colors did not stripe or pool in this pattern, which is what I wanted.  It should be machine-washable, which is what Baby Alice’s mother wanted.  The quality of the yarn seemed above average but didn’t blow me away.  Each of the 2 skeins I used had a knot in it, and each one had a section or two where the yarn wasn’t spun at the same twist rate as the rest.

*The Harlot called it a manta ray

BSJ-in-progress

I’ve started the Baby Surprise Jacket for Baby Alice:

The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in colorway “Lakeview.”  It’s pretty – no pooling.  This pattern almost never has more than one row with the same number of stitches, so I think it would be hard to make yarn pool in it.  In my opinion, this is a big “pro” for the pattern.

This shot shows the jacket through row 42.  There are nearly 100 rows.  So far I’ve mostly been decreasing.  Later there will be much increasing.  I hope I don’t run out of yarn. 

BSJ for Baby Alice

View Full Album

This is going to be my first Baby Surprise Jacket.  The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in color Lakeview (superwash merino, so it’s machine-washable).  I’m using worsted weight yarn because this baby has parents who are both over 6 feet tall, and the baby was born in early July.  I want Baby Alice to be able to wear it this fall/winter, so I’m going big.

This pattern does not come with multiple sizes (except for child and adult versions).  The only way to resize it is to use different yarn/needles.

The mother and I scanned project photos in Ravelry so I could get a sense of what she liked.  She was very drawn to the handpainted yarns, especially the versions made in Socks That Rock.  I finally decided that I needed thicker yarn, though, and the Blue Moon yarns in heavier weights are kind of spendy.  I wasn’t sure if I could get by with a single skein, and doubling the project cost just went too high. 

I think this Lakeview yarn will make a beautiful BSJ.  So far I like the yarn too much in hank and ball form to actually knit it – it’s too pretty!