Baby Surprise Jacket

Everyone who knits eventually gets around to an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern! Here's my first "pure" EZ project -- I say that because Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop borrowed extensively from Elizabeth Zimmerman (and is acknowledged as such) so Laura's Harry Potter Sweater is a pseudo first EZ project.

Blog entries, forum discussion boards and a Yahoo group dedicated specifically to this pattern had me so intimidated me that I broke down and bought the video. I probably didn't need to, a little time and dedication to figuring things out would have sufficed, but I did enjoy the video and picked up a few techniques as well.

I stash busted with this project and used Wool-Ease Oxford Grey (1 skein) and Buttercup (less than 1 skein.) It didn't occur to me until too late that I should have thrown in some Cranberry and I could have had a baby Harry Potter Sweater, maybe the next one!

There is one modification that I need to figure out. After the center 90 stitches have been worked for 10 ridges, there are 10 stitches that are picked up on each side and this is done in two rows (1/2 from the right side and 1/2 from the wrong side of the knitting.) The picked up stitches wind up on the front two sides of the sweater and there is a visible difference in their appearance that I don't like. I think a consistent look can be achieved with the simple solution of cutting the yarn and restarting the row from the beginning, so that all the the stitches get picked up on the same row, but I need to check that out.

I did applied icord for the final row and continued around the neck by picking up stitches and applying icord there as well.

The sleeves for this pattern are 3/4 and I like long sleeves (if I'm cold then the baby's cold, right??) so I added a k2,p2 cuff for 1 ½".

The finished measurements are 14" length, 21" chest, and 7" sleeves.

A cute pattern that will be fun to try in different weights of yarns. The design possibilities are endless!

My Ravelry project page for Baby Surprise Jacket.