Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket
At last, a finished object to report! I’d seen this famous jacket before but this is the first one I’d ever knit. It was for Tia and her newborn little son, Rohan. I took it over to them at the RPA Hospital tonight, and wonder of wonders, it actually fit! I’m also happy to report that this is officially the first knitted item the baby’s ever worn (as poor Tia was too sick to knit for most of her pregnancy). It was knitted out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and I used size 3.25mm needles. Read on for more pictures, including yours truly holding a truly unhappy newborn.Step One: Knit this thing. Doesn’t look like much, does it? I couldn’t even figure out which bit I was knitting for a while, which interfered with my plan to use stripes. Finally I just decided to throw in some random stripes and hope they turned out well.

Step Two: Fold it up. Believe it or not, that floppy thing actually folds up into this little jacket. The only seams you have to sew are the two shoulder tops.

Step Three: Finished! Here I’ve completed the shoulder seams and added buttons. In an elaborate attempt to avoid actually having to sew, I decided to try picking up along each shoulder and then doing a three-needle cast-off. It worked pretty well! Probably took me a lot longer than it would’ve to just sew the thing, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.

The back of the jacket.

The only problem I had with my shoulder joining method was that picking up on the back side of the shoulders created a weird little strip of stocking stitch on an otherwise all garter stitch garment. I decided that Rohan probably wouldn’t mind, but I may try to find a workaround for this in the future.

So tonight the Snook and I headed over to the hospital to deliver the jacket to the little nipper in person. He was all swaddled up asleep when we got there but that didn’t stop Mum from dressing him up right away. How cute is he? I’m sure he’ll outgrow it quickly, but for now he’s got one cozy little cardigan to keep him warm.

And five seconds later, there I was in a chair with a baby in my arms. He really didn’t like being woken up though, and he really didn’t like being that far away from his Mama. Poor little thing started to buck and cry, so here I’m like, “Hurry up Snookums and TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE ALREADY!” As soon as I handed him over to his dad Daniel, he turned into a little angel again.

Tia and Daniel are doing great, by the way, and it’s wonderful to see them so happy with their new little family. It blows my mind to think back to a year ago when Tia confessed they were trying for a baby, and all the complications and problems that arose. But there in that little hospital room, I got to see the happy ending to the story. Welcome, Rohan Porter.

Marianne’s cardigan is finished!
And it only took me two months longer than I expected. *sigh* Of course, that’s to be expected when you completely change patterns halfway through. After struggling through a fairisle cardy of my own design, I shelved that WIP in favor of something I could actually finish in time for Marianne to get some use out of it. This little hooded, cabled cardigan is my second project from Sirdar’s Denim Book of Aran Knits, and it’s knitted out of Denim Sport Aran (in “Purple Heather,” which has since been discontinued, I think). For once I didn’t bother with altering the pattern to knit it in the round, or make it longer, or switch anything around. Instead I just cast on and did exactly what the damn thing said. I was a little worried about the sad state of my mattress stitch, but luckily since I was mostly sewing moss stitch to moss stitch, you can’t even tell where it’s wonky. I made an excursion to All Buttons Great and Small yesterday for the buttons. Isn’t it cute? This was my first experience with both pockets and a hood, and I’m really proud of how well it turned out. I hope Marianne’s Mom and Dad like it! (Note: I deliberately knitted it two sizes too big. I figured she’d grown a bit since the last measurements I had – which were six months old by now – and this way she’ll hopefully get to wear it next year too.)

On Thursday I gave my latest knitting project its first public airing… I present the Geography Cardigan! I got the idea from an old 80’s knitting book Mrs Morris (the shop owner) lent me as a joke. The tackiness of the patterns really needs to be seen to be believed. (The back cover, for instance, features a guy in suspenders and a bow-tie standing next to a woman wearing a sweater… with knitted suspender and bow-tie motifs. Get it? It’s an OPTICAL ILLUSION. Very clever.) Anyway, I was flipping through it and suddenly there he was: Sexy Geography Teacher. He had a Ewan McGregor ‘tache to go with his acid-wash jeans and the grooviest, daggiest cardigan I’d ever seen. I had to make one. After a period of trial and error I settled on Sirdar Nova as the yarn of choice. It’s not 100% wool, but it’s soft and it was the only thing thick enough to get gauge that had a range of bright colors. In terms of technical difficulty, it was my first ever attempt at intarsia and I bungled it a bit. It looks fine from the outside, but I made the mistake of occasionally carrying the wool across the back instead of cutting and starting a new strand (because it was only a gap of a few stitches, and I’m lazy). I’ve since found out that you NEVER MIX INTARSIA AND FAIRISLE, which is what I was doing. Consider yourself warned. Anyhoo, I also had to invent a way to knit the collar on to the garment since the one knitted to the pattern specifications was way, way too small. But it worked out. I’m actually pretty proud of it! I still need to head to Newtown for some appropriate buttons, but it’s definitely one of my more successful projects. And check out the back! (And as the Aussies keep asking, Australia’s on my left elbow. No, I wasn’t clever enough to do the thing where you reorient the whole world to put Australia on top. Sorry.)

Knitted Baby Sweater
My boss Andrew’s wife just gave birth to a baby girl last Friday and I wanted to make them something special. (Okay, so I also wanted to suck up and use some of my extra wool.) I found this pattern for a quick garter stitch sweater knit cuff-to-cuff. I had to start three times but the finished version only took me about five hours. I know it’s blue; but that’s all I had – and it does have pink buttons! I hope it fits.