Baby Surprise Jackets

I jumped on the Elizabeth Zimmerman "Baby Surprise Jacket" bandwagon last week and really enjoyed the math challenge of EZ's ingenious pattern. I was half way through the first one before I knew what part of the sweater I was knitting! The first sweater involved a lot of head scratching and trust that the pattern wouldn't let me down. It was a real puzzle to solve, and I made copious notes while knitting to supplement EZ's sometimes sparse instructions.

When I finished the first sweater, I was hooked by the simple genius of it. So I immediately sat down to do a second sweater while it was fresh in my head so that I could really understand how the pattern (puzzle!) works. I refined my pattern notes and will be happy to share them. Just drop me an email: jeanie_west AT yahoo DOT com. You will still need to purchase the pattern. At the end of the post, I'll give you some links for where you can purchase this and other EZ patterns.

Here's what the sweater looks like after it is knitted (all in one piece) but before you sew the top of the sleeves and shoulders together. Those are the only seams. See what I mean about it being a puzzle? Or as EZ says in the pattern, "Are you still with me?"

And here's what it looks like finished with some cute little buttons.

On this version, I only added three of the original five buttonholes called for in the pattern. This jacket will probably fit a newborn to three month old and the yellow jacket with the red buttons will probably fit a six to 12 month old. I cast on the same number of stitches for each, but used different size needles and yarn. There are many, many variations you can add to this pattern.

Here are some helpful links if you want to knit this or other Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns:

A wiki with great pictures and notes on the BSJ: http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Baby_Surprise_Jacket

Schoolhouse Press where you can order EZ books and patterns: http://www.schoolhousepress.com/kits.htm