Saturday, December 31, 2011

A knitter's classic pattern

I feel like I've completed a Knitter's rite of passage. I have knitted a Baby Surprise Jacket. This is a vintage pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman, the legendary godmother of all modern knitting, and there are jillions of these jackets out there.

It starts out as one long line of knitting:



You increase and decrease where you are told. There are no knitting instincts at play here, you just have to follow directions because it makes no sense while knitting.



When you are done doing as you are told, it looks like this:




So you have an origami moment, and fold it up to look like this:



Then follows some seaming, edging and button sewing, and  you have a baby jacket!


Add booties, and you've got yourself a gift.


A nice phone call this week told me the set has arrived. Baby is 7 weeks old, and they put them right on her, so they seem to fit okay.

The yarn is a club yarn I got back in 2007, Duet XXL. I didn't make as good a use of the contrast yarn as I'd thought. I thought the edging would be cute in contrast, but it hardly shows. It was chosen as a good colour for either a boy or a girl, and the yarn is very soft and lofty.

4 comments:

Rebecca S. said...

Is Brigita the lucky baby? Just beautiful, Val!!!

heather said...

Hye, somebody made one of those jackets for my #1 baby. What a clever pattern (says the non-knitter)! I love the color.

RENUKA Prasad said...

Can anyone please give instructions/notes to knit this particular baby sweater?will be very grateful 🙏

Knitika said...

Hi Renuka Prasad, This sweater is called the "baby surprise jacket". Instructions are published in works by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Look for her books called The Opinionated Knitter, or the derivative book called The Complete Surprise.