Archive for ‘April, 2007’

It’s Odd-Looking, For Sure

on April 23, 2007

Yarn #2 has been added to the Baby Surprise Jacket. I hurriedly spun this the other night to go between the brown and the green. This project eats the yarn up at a frightening speed. It really lends itself to little bits and pieces of yarn, though.

Handspun Ball
80 yards/ 2 oz. of DK weight Merino wool 2 ply


It’s past the decreases and on to the increases, and this is where it starts to look funny, indeed.

Siri mentioned another jacket in the comments on the last post. It is another EZ pattern, and looks like nothing more than a BSJ without that extra bit of shaping at the bottom front. I think I might prefer the simplicity of this one (that shaping bugs me), but perhaps not in the heavy yarn I’m using. The fabric is quite thick and a double thickness at the overlap might be too stiff. Maybe next time with a finer yarn. There will be a next time, of course. This pattern sucked me right in.

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New Project: Baby Surprise Jacket

on April 20, 2007

I’ve been crazy over all the Baby Surprise Jackets over at Zimmermania for ages, so the moment I finally got The Opinionated Knitter, I started plotting out the handspun I’d need.


I’m only about an inch or so in, but that sharp corner is already really satisfying for some reason.


The green in the back is a possible second color, as is the pink below.

Can’t decide! I also have some lighter brown to spin up. Perhaps a transition from deep brown to paler brown to green or pink would be nice.

Have you made one? Show me! I can’t get enough of the little things and love to see all the striping variations people do. I finally understand how the thing goes together after knitting a bit of it (seriously, if only the illustration in the book was the other way around, it would have clicked a lot sooner) so planning the stripes has become fun.

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Notes on Treeline Striped Cardigan

on April 19, 2007

I’ve been plugging away on the striped cardigan and now have the sleeves done and am up to the waist shaping of the body.

Modification 4 (after size, waist shaping, and yarn):
There was a little something that bothered me in the photo of the sweater on Purl Bee, and after finally getting to the body of the sweater and thoroughly reading *ahem* the pattern for that part, I discovered that there’s ribbing at the front edge, in addition to the ribbed edging that is knit on at the end. It adds this blurriness to the stripes that I’m not fond of, so I’ve left it off. So far so good. I’m still not sure about the striped and ribbed edging, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Karen asked about knitting this cardigan in the round, adding a steek, and cutting it down the front and believe me, the thought crossed my mind, but I don’t think even the tightest machine sewing in the world could contain Kidsilk Haze. I even thought, for a mere moment, about weaving in the ends of the Kidsilk at the beginning and end of each brown row in order to knit it in the round, but bah. Flat it is. And it’s fine, even with the *knit 2 rows, purl 2 rows* striping bit. It’s fine.

Please excuse the possibly awful photos. I got a new camera and am quite excited. Things can only get better from here on out. :)

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