Baby Surprise Jacket in Handspun

Cast On:
August 7 2009

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Pattern:
The Infamous Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Made for:
Kiddle

Needles:
US 8 / 5.0 mm Knitpicks Options

Yarn:
Handspun blend of DragonFibers Superwash Merino/Tencel & The Fiber Denn Merino/Silk
~300-350 yards

Fibers:
4 oz. DragonFibers Superwash Merino/Tencel Fiber
Purchased from http://DragonFibers.etsy.com
Colorway - Heart of Darkness
Present from Silvercat

4 oz. Violet Silk/Superwash Fiber
Purchased from http://thefiberdenn.etsy.com
Colorway - Violet


Making for my baby due in September. Since the baby isn't born yet, I figured it would be good to make this now. Using the handspun means I wasn't sure what size the BSJ would be. But it means at some point in her life, it should fit her.

The handspun is 8.5-9.5 wpi. I tried a size 7 needle. A little too dense in garter. The size 8 needle has a nice feel. Tight enough to be warm, but loose enough to have some drape.

The yarn was spun for the 2009 Tour de Fleece. I was worried I might not have enough to complete the jacket. But I have yarn to spare.

I am so grateful for the pages with this project. The YouTube videos by L2Belt are extremely helpful. She offers some great suggestions on how to make this an easy project.

The wiki page photo by Nancepance also really helped to see where I wanted to add some strips. I am going to add it at row 21 for 6 rows and row 53 for 10 rows. This added enough without being too much.

I also used the spreadsheet by Civilgrrl. It is very straightforward which I found useful. It just gives the counts for each row. But it is set up row by row which helped me a great deal.

The DragonFiber has some striping to it already. But because I plied it with the Fiber Dragon, it is more modeled than straight striping. I only have a little of the solid violet from Fiber Denn.

Overall, I liked how quickly this went. I cast it on on Friday and bound it off on Monday. It was definitely quick to knit.

Just need to seam up the shoulders & add the buttons. Then it will be done!

I think if I had only had Zimmermann's instructions, I would have been pulling out my hair. But since I could use the different bits of help, it really made a huge difference. It made it a quick and fun knit. I think I just have trouble with Zimmermannese. Her patterns are very short and don't lay out much detail. So I am never sure about when you keep doing increases, when you are done with them, etc.. So it helped me so much having others who had done this and share the knowledge. Thanks heavens for Ravelry. Made it easy to find the info as the pattern has its own wiki page.

My DH did say there was a lot less swearing involved with this one. *laugh*

Though I am gonna have to figure out some creative words for when I run into trouble once the little one is born! *chuckle*