Baby Surprise Jacket Knit-Along: First Ten Rows

Good Monday Morning:-)! Are you ready to knit? Did you look at your pattern and utter some version of, "Huh? This is like no pattern I've ever before seen. I'm out of my element knitting when I can't see where the knitting is going?"

How do I even start?!

The good folks at Schoolhouse Press have graciously given us permission to post Elizabeth deHority's answers to just those questions when I posed them to her. I read her "translation" and then read the pattern and tah-dah!

{The First Ten Rows}

Remember, if I can knit this jacket, you can knit this jacket. Without further ado, here are Elizabeth's line by line words of wisdom for the first ten rows:

This is garter stitch, so knit every row.  Don't purl back, BUT remember that you do your decreases on row one (after cast on, that's row zero) and on odd rows.  Once I get a couple of rows done, I mark the side that FACES ME ON ODD ROWS.  You'll see this below at Row Five.  That way when you put your work down, even without the pattern, you can tell where you are and where to go.

 

 

Use just the regular stitch markers that you know and love.  You will need four, but five makes things easier.

 

Cast on per the pattern, putting simple plastic stitch markers after stitch 29, 42, 118, and 131.  (row zero)

 

Row 1:  Knit to marker, move marker.  Knit five stitches.  Slip one stitch from left to right, without knitting.  Knit the next two stitches together, then PSSO:

Pick up that stitch that you slipped, which will be the second over on your right needle, with your left needle, and pop it over the first one.  (pull it over and drop it like a necklace around that K2tog.)  Here's a video, demonstrating PSSO (also called a double decrease).

Knit 5. Move marker. knit 76. Slip marker.  Knit 5.  Then do the double decrease again. Knit 5. Slip marker. Knit 29.

 

Row 2:  Knit  back.  Big breath.  That row one is always tricky :-)

 

Row 3:  Knit to marker. Move marker. Knit FOUR. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit four.  Move marker. Knit 76. Move marker. Knit FOUR. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit four.  Move marker. Knit to end.

 

Row 4:  Knit back.

 

Row 5:  Stick a safety pin or a yarn loop on the side facing you, maybe on row three or something, so that you know when the pin is facing you you're on an odd row.  Then:  Knit to marker. Move marker. Knit THREE. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit THREE.  Move marker. Knit 76. Move marker. Knit THREE. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit THREE move marker. Knit to end.

{Elizabeth Foss  (How many Elizabeths can we get in on this project anyway?) note: you don't see a marker for the right side in my pictured project because I'm switching yarn every other row. Once I finish a ridge, I switch. I know when I'm on the right side because it happens every time I switch. Of course, this only works if you are striping every ridge. Honestly, I can't even remember why I decided to stripe this much. I'm sure there was a perfectly good reason somewhere along the way.}

 

Row 6:  Knit back.

 

Row 7:  Knit to marker. Move marker. Knit TWO. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit TWO.  Move marker. Knit 76. Move marker. Knit TWO. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit TWO move marker. Knit to end.

 

You should see a diagonal line forming where you are decreasing.

 

Row 8:  Knit back.  Breathe.

 

Row 9:  Knit to marker. Move marker, knit ONE, slip one, knit two together, PSSO.  Knit ONE.  Move marker. Knit 76. Move marker. Knit ONE. Slip one. Knit two together. PSSO.  Knit ONE. Move marker. Knit to end.

 

Row 10:  Knit back.  End of day one. 

 

{My BSJ with bulky yarn, handspun by Elizabeth deHority. White and Pinkish purple stripes, for my tiny two-year-old to wear right around her third birthday. Actually, after Elizabeth DeHority saw these pictures, she declared the yarn too loose and sent me all new yarn. Now, I've knit using these instructions twice. New pics on Ravelry.}

Let us know how you're doing! Please leave a comment, and then leave a link as well, so we can find you. (If you don't have a blog, join anyway. You can post pictures to the Flickr group. Just take pictures as you knit along and upload them to the group so we can Ooh and Ahh.) I'm looking really forward to seeing what yarn you've chosen and what ideas you have about stripes and such.

Before We Knit

Elizabeth DeHority has graciously offered to help us through the knitting of a classic Baby Surprise Jacket (there are 14,564 pictured here). This jacket is knit from an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern, which can be found in the The Opinionated Knitter or in the video (also available at Amazon here). If you are a new knitter, I highly recommend that the pattern you purchase is the line-by-line  ABCSJ pattern available at www.schoolhousepress.com. The link will take you to the page. You have to scroll to find the pattern. I'm sorry, but there is no direct link to the product. The line-by-line pattern is much easier to understand than EZ's original rendering.

Please let us know if you're joining us. You don't need a blog to join. You can post photos of your progress to the You can post pictures to the BSJ Knitalong Flickr group.

 

If you do have a blog, please put a small button on your sidebar and grab a large one for your progress posts

Here, again, are button codes. I think they are copying correctly but let me know in the comments if you have problems with them:

Here are codes:

Small:

<p><a href="http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearning/2011/05/baby-surprise-jacket-knit-along.html"><img src="http://ebeth.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c543553ef014e8853e47b970d-800wi" alt="" /></a></p>

Large:

<p><a href="http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearning/2011/05/baby-surprise-jacket-knit-along.html"><img src="http://ebeth.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c543553ef014e8853e916970d-800wi" alt="Bsjlarge" /></a></p>

If you are still having trouble with button codes, I beg your pardon and your grace. Please leave a note in the comments and I promise to work on it.

Look for a post detailing prizes real soon. In the meantime, Elizabeth DeHority answers more of your questions below:

We've talked about what a knitter needs to know to start a BSJ... really and truly, if she can cast on and do a knit stitch, she can knit this whole sweater.  There are a few other stitches and things that we'll need, but none are hard and we'll have videos of all of them.

 

Here are two more frequent questions from email and my ravelry messages:

 

1.  Why do I need to do a swatch if I don't have to make my knitting match a certain number of stitches per inch?

 

Good question!  First of all, some people ARE trying to make a specific size sweater, and therefore need a certain number of stitches per inch,  I want my sweater to be about a size three, but shorter (for George, who has short upper arms like many people with Down Syndrome)  Therefore, I needed to be sure that my yarn and my needles worked together to give me 3.5 stitches per inch.  But even if you don't need a certain gauge, a swatch is valuable.  First of all, every knitter is different, and the size needles you need to make a nice fabric from a particular yarn might be very different than those recommended on the ball band.  And what if there IS no ball band?  Several knitters who have signed up are using handspun.  They really have to experiment to decide what needles give the best results.  Also, since your sweater will be babywear, it will get washed.  And washed.  And washed.  Even machine washable yarn changes quite a bit after that first wash.  Or what if you're trying a new yarn and you discover after washing your swatch just once that it gets all distorted or pilly?  You might not want to spend so much time and effort until you exchange your yarn for something more durable.

 

2.  I want to make stripes.  How do I do that?  How many rows until I should change colors?

There are some color-changing guidelines ("when" in the pattern conveys to "where" in the sweater) in the ABCSJ pattern.

 

You can change colors whenever you want.  I'm alternating 10 rows of my main color with 6 rows of contrasting colors, Elizabeth Foss is changing colors every two rows, Ginny and my mom are using self-striping yarn. 

 

If you're knitting only two rows with a new color, you are going to carry your yarn (both colors) up the side of your work. To keep things neat, every time you switch colors, just give the yarn a little twist with other color before knitting the first stitch.

 

If you're knitting more than two rows, it works best to cut your yarn, leaving a nice long tail to weave in later.

 

Pull about the same amount of tail from your new color.

 

Tie a loose knot close to the edge of your work, and just start knitting.  When we sew it all up and do the finishing, we will talk about weaving in ends.

 

There is one other thing to think about when you plan your colors.  If you change as you start a right side row, the rows with the odd numbers, your color change will be a solid line, like this:

 

If you start your new color when the wrong side is facing you, when you are about to start knitting an even numbered row, your color change will look like this:

 

Either way is fine.  I have made sweaters with all the changes on one side or the other, and I've made sweaters with changes on both sides.  often if I'm using a muticolored yarn, I want to make the changes on the wrong side, to mix the colors up more.  My sweater this time is all solids, and I want the stripes to be smooth, so I'm going to change only when I'm starting odd numbered, right side, rows.

 

Leave questions in the comments below and we'll answer there. That way, everyone can benefit from the answers. no doubt, there will be questions as we move along. My mom borrowed my The Opinionated Knitter book to knit her sweater, and she looked at the pattern there (which is not the all written out kind) and said, and I quote, "This should be fine, looks pretty straightforward to me"  I'd hope it would be easy for her; she's the one who taught me how to knit, and I think she's knit even more whole big fancy sweaters than I've knit plain little baby socks.  By the way, happy mother's day, mom :-)

{Miracle Moment: Nineteen Years Ago Today}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual.  Photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit Soulemama to leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Cinco de Mayo Daybook

Outside My Window

Today is bright and beautiful, but cold. It won't hit 70 degrees today and the wind is blowing.

I am Listening to

Nicholas and Katie discussing Tangled versus Rapunzel.One thing is certain: Nicholas is sure that Tangled is not a princess movie. "It's way better than that."

I have to agree.

I am Wearing

Jeans, ruffled neck t-shirt, embroidered cotton cardigan.

I am so Grateful for

~my optician, who has been on a quest for nearly ten years to find me a pair of glasses that fit.

~glasses that fit. Worth every penny I saved to buy them.

I'm Pondering

 “It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” Bl. John Paul II 

I am Reading

a review copy of Kate Wicker's new book. Good stuff.

I am Thinking

about asking some small businesses and Etsy crafters if they'd like to sponsor this blog. Let me know if the thought appeals to you.

I am Creating

A Baby Surprise Jacket

On my iPod

 a little Cinco de Mayo earworm.

Towards a Real Education

Nicholas has been challenged to read his way through every picture book we own--aloud, to me. We have a vast selection of historical, science, saints' and other biographies, geographical, and just plain good stories. If he meets this challenge, he will have a wide and varied (and fairly deep) knowledge base and he will have an appreciation for good art and language. Sounds like a plan.

{The extended time on the couch with mom is not to be underappreciated, either.}

Towards Rhythm and Beauty

We've begun a new school term and so far the rhythm is lovely. Our afternoon knitting and crafting begins in earnest when Gracie arrives around 2:45 every day. Mornings are productive and academic. Chores are getting finished. Outside time happens when the weather permits. Evenings are for soccer and dance. Lots of reading. All good.

To Live the Liturgy...

Playing this song over and over these days.

I am Hoping and Praying

for Elizabeth deHority. She is constantly on my heart and in my prayers. She needs you now. Please, please pray with me.

for the soul of Ty Lewis and for his family and for the countless soccer families who grieve his loss.

for Sarah and her family as they grieve the tragic loss of her sister-in-law.

for Mike's dad and for his mom and for his medical care.

 In the Garden

Snap peas and spring lettuces. Observation: we have a very small square foot garden. There's no way it can a feed a family this size. For instance, I can't begin to gather enough lettuce at one time for a dinner salad for us all. We really need a bigger garden. One at least three times this size.

Around the House

I fixed the washing machine. It's been taking ages to get through one load of laundry--seriously, four or five HOURS. I dreaded calling our very nice repairman and having him tell me that someone's pocket treasures were clogging up the works. And I dreaded even more writing him a $200 dollar check. So I googled. And I found this. We bought a set of Torx screwdrivers ($8). And I fixed the washing machine. When you subtract the $1.75 in quarters I found in the pump, the whole thing cost me $6.25. And made my whole day.

Furthermore, I learned a valuable lesson: it really does matter how well my appliances work. No matter how organized I am and how disciplined I am, if the washing machine doesn't work well, I will get behind on laundry. This principle can be applied to other things. More on that later, perhaps.

From the Kitchen

Tea without sugar. I gave it up for Lent. Now I don't want it any more. Go me.

One of My Favorite Things

the smell of the craft store

A Few Plans for the Week

~May Crowning at the mission church tomorrow with our girls club

~State Cup on Satruday

~Mother's Day: game in Maryland (and hour or so away),  pickup at the airport close to home, game in McLean, drop off at the airport close to home.

~ballet on Monday. and soccer

~and Tuesday

~and Wednesday....

~I'm speaking at the women's group on Ft. Belvoir Wednesday morning:-)

Picture thoughts:

 

  

{{Comments are open. I have been terrible about responding to mail. Please forgive me? I do read every single note and I do pray for you. But, I don't always answer promptly. I'm hoping that having comments open on occasion will give me a chance to answer the more common questions for several people at once and will give you dear ladies an opportunity to talk with each other. They are moderated, so if you don't see yours at first, it means I'm busy knitting; it will appear shortly.}}

Yarn Along: Tidying Up

Last week, I did a little experiment. Elizabeth sent me five "mystery fibers." They were each labeled, A-E, in their own bags. I didn't know which one was which but I knew I had llama, yak, merino, cashmere, and alpaca. The idea was to play with each of them long enough to see if I would react.

About 20% of the population reports being "allergic" to wool. Most of them are actually just sensitve to wool's prickly fibers. Truly allergic people have respiratory symptoms--wheezing, sneezing, running nose, itching and tearing eyes. Every one of those bags caused me allergic symptoms, though the cashmere was not nearly so bad as the others.

This fact made me exceedingly sad. My visit to the yarn store had shown me what amazing yarns were out there. It had also been heavily skewed towards wool. It's a part of the knitting world that will not be a part of my world.

I made an order to WEBS shortly after completing the experiment. I ordered several cotton yarns, just one skein each. The plan is knit gauge swatches and find a yarn I really love so that I can browse patterns (one of my new favorite pasttimes) and know that I can find an alternative to wool. So, I'm knitting lots of squares again:-). I never would have thought I'd purposefully order yarn to just make swatches, but now I'm seeing that I need to just knit with a few options before I get over my head with yarns that aren't going to work.

I'm still reading Organized Simplicity. And I think its principles are affecting my knitting a wee bit. A friend laughed the other day when she saw my well-organized knitting pattern book. I guess I've started enough new crafting hobbies the wrong way that I'm determined to be organized and careful from the get-go with knitting. The day after our knitting "Momcation," there was yarn on the living room table and I found needles under the couch. Someone had already torn a label off a bright pink yarn, only one of its kind, leaving me the first mystery yarn in my stash. I know enough about how to keep things organized after all these years with all these kids to see that this was a disaster in the making. So, I determined to do this right, right from the beginning.

I have two notebooks. One is for patterns. I like to print right after I download, so that I don't need my computer to knit. Knitting has been a wonderful way to pull myself away from the computer and I like it that way. All the patterns are filed, according to age and gender, in page protectors.

The other notebook is for gauge swatches. I slip the knitted gauge swatch into a page protector with the band from the yarn and a note reminding msyelf what needles I used to knit the swatch and what my gauge was. A zippered pocket holds buttons behind a clear plastic window and sewing needles and notion behind the buttons.

I really didn't want a "yarn stash." It seems counterintuitive to so many things: battling clutter, avoiding overbuying, finishing what I start...After the "momcation," I had several skeins of yarn. I had no idea whatsoever what I was going to knit with them. Come to think of it, I had no idea how to knit;-). I also learned that knitters like to gift other knitters with yarn. So, there were several skeins there of very nice yarn, some of it so nice that it's still waiting for me to deicde what is worthy of its knitting. The stash --since apparently there was going to be a stash-- needed a home. I have installed it in the cabinets of our antiquated TV hutch. [Yes, my husband is a television executive and our TVs are all turn-of-the-century boxes. I figure if he ever decides we need a flat TV, that just gives me a much bigger space in the cabinet for knitting books.] The yarn is there, with mine on the top shelf and the girls' beneath it. And I have the girls trained to keep their projects on their yarn shelf when they're not working on them. I'm going to help them sew project bags this week.

I have a basket with all my Harmony needles in a small bag. The cables not currently in use are also in the basket, along with a tape measure, stitch markers, needle gauge, and some straight needles. The little green triangle from my first knitting lessons also lives there, inspiring me with warm memories.

I keep my current project (and I try to have just one) in a drawstring project bag. There is a tiny pair of scissors in there, my current yarn, a page-protected copy of the pattern with the numbers for the proper size circled, and any notions I may need during that knit. When I'm home and not knitting, the project bag goes in the basket and the basket goes in the cabinet.

Our growing collection of kntting books and pattern books are in the cabinet, too. A place for everything. I don't want to ruin the relaxing effect that knitting has on me by turning into yet one more thing that has us scrambling and searching so that we can relax and create.

My girlies are learning to knit, and loving it. I tend to be very liberal with creative materials. My children  have unfettered access to paints, paper, crayons, clay, magic markers, chenille stems. Our craft room is always on the brink of disaster. (The things Christian has done with duct tape and cardboard and paint are astounding.) While I want to continue to be unabashedly enthusiastic in all their creative pursuits, I have learned a thing or two. They have freedom within well-defined limits with the knitting supplies.

And I am still committed to very limited UFOs and a very small stash of yarn.

 

Psst, I started my Baby Surprise Jacket. My life is going to be a little crazier than usual next week, so I wanted to get a head start. Very fun knit! Won't you join us for a knit-along? Look for a post announcing prizes by the end of the week and sign up to start by May 9th!

{comments open}