It's a sweater!

This is the third adult sweater that I have knitted . . . and the first one that actually fits me! Sweater #1 was a raglan pullover that was way too big. After laying around for a couple of years, I unraveled it to use the yarn in other projects.

Sweater #2 was a cute little thing. The emphasis here is on the word little. As in too little for me. Guess I thought I was too smart to swatch. Ha, learned a lesson from that one and swatched the heck out of the next sweater yarn. My mom was the lucky (?) recipient of the little sweater.

This one is "Tithe" from the book Noro Unlimited (can't find a link, but google NORO YARN and you'll come up with lots of options), which has lots of great patterns. I actually used Plymouth Yarns Boko to knit this because it was cheaper by half than the Noro yarn. Unfortunately, two out of ten skeins of Boku shredded when I tried to knit with them, so I can't recommend it. I have two other colorways of Boku and I'm hoping that they are a better quality. Several people on Ravelry have used Boku without problems.

Anyway, this sweater took about 8 skeins of Boku (50 gms each) and was knit on size 8 needles. It has 3/4 length sleeves and no buttons on the front. It is just something light to throw on when the weather is a little cool, or perhaps the A/C at a store or the movies. :)

SOS - Last pair?

This is pair #4 (and maybe the last) for the Summer of Socks knit-along. They are also the August pair for the Ravelry sock group. I really have to stop joining these knit-alongs. Just keeping up with their blogs takes way too much knitting and biking/skating time!

These are made out of the most incredibly soft yarn - Mountain Colors Bearfoot (60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, 15% nylon) in the Ruby River colorway. Oh, they feel soooo good on the foot! Not sure if I'm keeping these, or if they are a sister present (you know who you are!).

The pattern is "River Rapid Socks" by Sockbug. It had an easy to remember pattern on the leg and going down the instep. I did my own thing on the heel.

Here's an outta focus pix of the sock blockers I made from vinyl-coated coat hangers. I got the idea from another website, which I can't remember at the moment. If I do, I'll come back and post a link here. I made a bunch of them to give to sock knitting friends. They may not be as pretty as fancy $30 sock blockers, but they cost next to nothing and probably work just as well.

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