In honor of EZ’s Brithday: Baby Surprise Jacket KAL

Elizabeth Zimmerman’s 100th birthday was August 9. One of our expert knitters in the Nebraska Knit & Crochet Guild (NKCG) started a knit-a-long (KAL) of the “Baby Surprise Jacket” in honor of EZ’s birthday. I had never done this baby sweater pattern, so I joined in the KAL.

It turned into on of those obsession driven projects. You know the ones — where you become so intrigued by how the pattern is unfolding that you simply.cannot.put.it.down. Yup, your fingers just itch to knit and your brain refuses to think about anything else — especially mundane things like laundry, cooking and other housework. That’s what this little project became.

You see, the BSJ is knit entirely of garter stitch and involves a series of increases, decreases and center double decreases to make your knitting go at right angles. It is knit in a single piece — and the fascinating thing is that it turns into a sweater without the normal sweater type shaping that you usually do. As I knit this project, I kept marveling at the ingenuity of the designer — how in the heck had she figured this out? It’s a combination of understanding geometry and the shaping required for a baby sweater — and EZ was someone who took theoretical concepts like right angles and turned them into pragmatic knitted garments. Perhaps a few pictures will help.

When you finish knitting the pattern — you end up with an oddly shaped piece of garter stitch fabric that looks like this:

Garter stitch fabric - Baby Surprise Jacket

As you can see, I knit this with two different yarns to create stripes. Now, when you fold the edges together, this striped fabric turns into this:

Baby Surprise Jacket, folded

A jacket. That’s the surprise — it actually turns into a little sweater jacket with nifty right angle striping on the front and horizontal striping on the back. And — there are only two seams to sew! Just two — the sleeves at the top. The button band is done as part of the bottom of the knitted piece, so you just add buttons and you are finished. (I’m still looking for buttons, so I don’t have a photo of the finished jacket.)

Now, the written pattern is somewhat confusing at first. There are several resources available to help sort out the sketchy instructions given in both the Knitter’s Almanac and Knitting Workshop. However, the biggest question I had was “if I knit this at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch, what size is my jacket?” EZ just tells you it will fit an infant if you knit at that gauge and if you knit it at a gauge of 5 stitches per inch, you will get a bigger jacket that will fit a larger child about 1 year old. This is this question that seems to cause knitters the most problems.

I knit this BSJ using Dale of Norway Baby Ull, which is a fingering weight wool yarn and my gauge was 6 spi. The jacket measures 15.25 inches across the chest, just at the point where the underarm is. Looking at a standard body measurements chart for baby sizes, This jacket is a 0-3 months size.

Now this sizing issue really bugged me — so I had to figure out the sizing for different gauges and correlate them to actual baby sizes. (Yes, I am a geek.) After studying the pattern, I discovered that the chest measurement is at the point in the pattern where you are knitting 90 stitches. (90 divided by 6 equals 15). So, using this point of reference, I have calculated roughly what the corresponding size will be if the BSJ is knitted at gauges of 5.5 spi, 5 spi, & 4.5 spi. I put this into a table to help others who might be bugged by this question:

Gauge Chest Measurement Size
6 spi 15-16 in. 0-3 mos
5.5 spi 16-17 in. 3-6 mos
5 spi 18 in. 12 mos.
4.5 spi 20 in 18 mos.

References:
Pattern: Ez’s instructions for the Baby Surprise Jacket can be found in Knitter’s Almanac or Knitting Workshop and/or it can be purchased from Schoolhouse Press.

Row Counter: A handy tool for keeping track while knitting the BSJ can be found here: http://www.box.net/shared/eugvsfb3lt

Video: There is a six-part video series on the BSJ, here is the link to the First Episode.

Ravelry Knitters — there is also a Rav Group for the BSJ.

1 thought on “In honor of EZ’s Brithday: Baby Surprise Jacket KAL”

  1. Wow. You’re done with yours. I’m still on Row 18. I’ll probably get to it this weekend when family is here. It’s a good chatty knitting project!

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Related Post

Snowed In!Snowed In!

Winter has definitely arrived in Nebraska. It started snowing yesterday morning and continued throughout the day — we ended up with around 10 inches — and then, the wind kicked in. This means blizzard conditions — blowing snow, major snow drifts, limited visibility and extremely hazardous driving conditions.

All the schools were closed yesterday and many businesses closed early and sent staff home. DH arrived home around 12:30 PM. Schools still closed today — sun is out, but it is bitterly cold and there is a large drift covering our entire driveway. No sign of a snow plow, so for now — we are snowed in.

I spent most of my time yesterday afternoon finishing the Chevron Hat — I frogged it back to the beginning of the crown because I did not like the way it was turning out. Found another beret pattern that has you decreasing stitches by half every so many rows — tried that, keeping to the alternating of colors every 4 rows. Much better. Hat is now done and awaiting blocking along with the scarf. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Have a fresh loaf of bread going in the bread machine — didn’t make it to the grocery store before the big storm. Fresh homemade bread and a hot pot of soup sounds good — off to make the soup.

Part 2: Freeing Yourself from a Pattern – Step 1, Take Good MeasurementsPart 2: Freeing Yourself from a Pattern – Step 1, Take Good Measurements

In my last post, I outlined how to use EZ’s Percentage System to design a sweater. Today, I will spend some time answering a question from Amanda, who asked, “What do you do when the pattern does not have instructions for YOUR size?”

This is very frustrating for those of us who are either smaller or larger than the range of sizes given by the pattern designer. I have never fully understood why some designer’s only develop their patterns for “Small, Medium, & Large”, though the trend seems to be to at least go up to “Extra Large” in current knitting publications. But, if your measurements do not correspond to the designer’s definition of “medium”, you may still find yourself with a sweater that is not well-fitting.

Isn’t that the goal for all of us? To knit a well-fitting garment? So, once again, the answer is to use the pattern as a general guideline and develop your own sweater according to your own measurements. Your measurements are your starting point.

There are two ways to take your measurements:
#1: Take measurements from a sweater that fits you the way you like/love.
Lay the sweater out flat on a table or other flat surface and take the following measurements:

The Chest Measurement [CM] – this is the widest point of the sweater, usually right below the underarm. Measure from side seam to side seam. Remember that since you are measuring with the garment laying flat, that the actual chest measurement is twice this amount. (Important if you will be knitting in the round).

Shoulder Width[ShW] – this is the measurement across the shoulders from the seams or the point where the arm meets the body. This measurement is important for a proper fitting sweater.

The Neck Measurment [NM] – measure this for both the front and the back and note if the garment has shaping that creates depth – due to a difference in the front neckline from the back.

Armhole Depth [AD] – measure from the top of the sleeve at the shoulder seam down to the underarm.

Sleeve Length [SL] – measure from the top of the sleeve at the shoulder seam to the beginning of the sleeve.

Wrist Measurement [WM] – measure the width of the wrist at the bottom of the sleeve.

Sleeve Width [SW] – measure the widest part of the sleeve.

Side Seam Length [SSL] – measure from the bottom of the sweater to the point where the sleeve meets the body at the underarm.

Back Length [BL] – at the center of the back – measure from the center of the back neck edge to the bottom of the sweater.

Front Length [FL] – at the center of the front (or front edge if a cardigan) – measure from the front neck edge to the bottom of the sweater.

Other measurements that you may want –
width of sleeve at the elbow
width at waist (if sweater tapers in at the waist)

I am including a diagram that you can use to record these measurements – click here: Measurements Diagram.

#2 – Take your measurements using your body.
Note – this is best accomplished with the help of a good friend. Measurements to be taken are the same as above, only taken directly from your body. You will need to figure in “ease” when calculating your pattern changes.

Now a few words about “Ease”. Ease is an extra amount of fabric that provides a garment with movement and shaping. When you take your measurements from your sweater – they will include the ease of that sweater. When you take actual body measurements, you will need to add in an appropriate amount of ease.

Close fitting garments have less ease and in some cases have negative ease, while loose fitting garments may have a significant amount of ease. Generally, the guidelines are that a classic fit has 7-10% ease, a close-fit will have a negative 7-10% ease and a very loose fit may have up to 20% ease.

So, now you have all the measurements you need. Take a look at the pattern you are wanting to use – hopefully, there is a diagram in the pattern that gives the finished measurements for each size. If not, you may want to use my diagram to write them down. Make note of the differences between your measurements and those in the pattern.

Also, make note of any textured stitch patterns or colorwork patterns used in the pattern. You need to know what the base number of stitches is for the pattern repeats. This is usually something like: “7 stitches over 9 rows” or “7 stitches, plus 1 over 9 rows”. Write this down – you will need it later.

That’s enough for today. Next post: Step 2 – Analyze the pattern.