Well whaddaya know. I did in fact finish the baby jacket before the baby came.
Cute eh? We particularly like the three buttons at the top, rather than five all the way down. Yes, we do. That’s a Design Feature. It’s definitely not because I somehow forgot to do buttonhole number 4. Nuh uh.
[*coff*]
Cute eh? We particularly like the three buttons at the top, rather than five all the way down. Yes, we do. That’s a Design Feature. It’s definitely not because I somehow forgot to do buttonhole number 4. Nuh uh.
[*coff*]
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman’s legendary Baby Surprise Jacket.
Yarn: Indigo Moon Nature’s Harvest in Wasabi (main colour) and IM Handpainted Fingering in Autumn Harvest (border)
Needles: 3.25mm Colonial rosewood
Elizabeth Zimmerman was a mad crazy genius. Cat Bordhi and Debbie New are often called the mad geniuses of the knitting world, but for my money, it’s Liz all the way. Sure, knitting a boat is a little quirky, and of course moebius knitting is excitingly innovative. But this – this is a special kind of twisted. All along, while knitting it, I was trying to figure out what I was doing. “Increase here for fullness in back,” I would muse, “hm, so this is the back… nope. Don’t get it. Keep going.” Kept going, kept looking, kept trying to figure it out. Kept failing. (The pattern is full of entertaining instructions like “this will start to look like nothing on earth, but trust me”.)
Finally I cast off, looked at it, and just for kicks, tried to figure out how it would fold up without looking at the instructions.
Hopeless. I worried that I might have totally screwed it up somehow, because there was clearly no WAY this was ever going to be baby-shaped.
I looked at the instructions. I looked back at the “jacket”. It looked at me. Still a mystery.
Fold A to A, it said, and I did. Still looking. Still befuddled.
Fold B to B, it said, and that was harder, because B was some unmarked point along a straight line, and I couldn’t really see what –
HOLD THE PHONE! You mean like THAT? You mean THAT’S the idea? Well HOLY COW. What kind of crazy genius comes up with an idea like THAT?
And so I have a baby jacket.
It’s safe to come out now, baby.
Woolly thoughts (and fuzzy logic) 
Delightful!
I made one of those for BF’s baby, and yes – EZ was the mad genius. I especially loved the instruction that read something like, “Will look v. strange now, but trust me and press on.”
Baby bellies being what they are, I think the three-button idea is inspired. May use it if I ever make another one of those myself.
Come on, baby! We’re ready to meet you!!!
Cute! I love patterns that look crazy, like lace. It looks like nothing at all until you block it, but you have faith in the pattern and just carry on in the knowlege that it will turn out like it’s supposed to :P.
Knitting is 90% faith in the pattern, 10% luxury yarn. And some fingers.
Have to disagree there, Jo. I don’t think either faith in the pattern or luxury yarn are essential components. In fact I’d usually substitute “improvisation” for any kind of faith in the pattern. That actually made this quite a hard project for me; not understanding where it was going meant I couldn’t confidently make *any* adjustments, not even playing with stripes… adding a border to the beginning and end was as bold as I dared be.
You’re very much on my mind and in my prayers these days. May baby come soon now that BSJ is finished and everyone is “patiently” waiting. 🙂