Surprise! It's a Baby Jacket!

Alternate titles for this post include the following:
1. I'm A Firm Believer in Not Branching Out
2. The Sears Kitchen Appliance Catalog from 1970, maybe 1968
3. Dude, Is That Thing Hyperbolic?

Because I wanted to see how it would work, I knit up Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. This is a really famous pattern from the late 1960s, and I assume she came up with it for two reasons. First, she hated purling. This she writes about. 2. She must have hated seaming. I have a fondness for both, but decided to try the pattern anyway. It looked easy. Just a few double decreases, then some mirrored increases, and then as she says, "Hey presto eureka and lo, a baby jacket." Of course, her instructions are (as always, apparently) a little on the vague side and full of funny comments like, "the object should look very odd indeed." This is not exactly what you want to see on the "pattern". My understanding is that EZ's patterns are more like suggestions, meant to encourage the knitter to make amendments as desired. I rarely follow patterns exactly anyway, but did my best, since I'll admit that no matter how good I am at thinking about the abstract, I could not for the life of me figure out how this flap of fabric was going to origami its way into a sweater.

I got some Lion's Brand Lion Wool for cheap at the Freddy's, and came home, sat down in the living room, and started knitting. Meet our living room.



That chair is circa 1970, bought by my parents way back when (before I was me), and it's got its original upholstery. John loved it so much that we got an olive couch to match, and found a rug to tie it all together. Yup. Olive and burnt orange. Yup.

I was sitting there, knitting, when I realized that I'd bought yarn for this baby sweater in exactly the colors of my living room. Exactly the colors of just about everything else I own and wear. I'm an autumn. We wear olive and burnt orange. Sometimes black. Sometimes white. Sometimes taupe. Always neutral. And here I was making a baby sweater (with no baby in mind) using the colors I like. Man. Maybe John and I should consider putting up some wood panelling in the living room. And getting a Hi-Fi. And a bar where we can mix cocktails.

Whatever. I've said before, I'm a big fan of not branching out, and I really mean it. I organize my clothes by color. Fortunately, this doesn't take very long.

Anyway, the thing took about 10 hours to knit, and it was mighty boring, what with all the garter stitch and the lack of shaping. (That's only MOSTLY true. There is a row where you add ten stitches to make it easier to get the jacket on over a baby's diaper. Babies have puffy butts, with the diapers and all, and it wouldn't do to have a sweater that was tight over the bum. That's soooo unattractive.)

When it was done, it looked like this (the apple is there for size comparison):



Almost flat. Yes, Greg, it is hyperbolic. (And to those of you who don't know what that means, consider yourself better off.) But EZ was right. It does look very odd indeed. Certainly nothing like a baby sweater. But then you fold it, and holy crap! It's a sweater! (Holy Crap! being my version of "Hey presto eureka and lo".)



And check out those buttons! I got them at Fabric World for 35 cents apiece. They are actually older than I am. But hey presto eureka do they look awesome.



The only seams are at the top, from neckline to wrist on each side. I did that while proctoring an exam. I was a little nervous, since the front is vertical and the back is horizontal, but it works out fine. Two rows of garter stitch (one ridge) is the same width as one stitch turned ninety degrees -- this could be the neatest seam I've ever done. It was definitely the easiest.



When I took this to knit night, someone commented, "Well THOSE are Stephanie colors alright." Yeah. Not branching out. Why fix what isn't broken, and all that.

Final deets on the BSJ: Knit up on #6 US needles at 5 sts/in. This is probably about a 12 mos. size, but I'm not sure. I'll ask a mom.