Knitting

Random Baby Surprise Jacket

When my friend Adrienne announced at the beginning of summer that she would be knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket for one of her college professors, I knew I just had to make one too. I don’t know why. I’m not having a baby. I figured I could just put it in a box and save if for if we ever decide to have another one, or if anyone I know has a baby. And then I got tendonitis again, and I almost put this project on semi-permanent hibernation. But, as soon as my arm was feeling better, the noodle-cooking siren song that is the BSJ drew me right back in and I finished it.

[ravelry]

Now, onward.

Knitting

Baby Surprise Heretic

I had this whole other post written up about how, even though the BSJ is somewhat of a sacred cow in the blogoknitosphere, that it’s really only an OK knit and that I probably wouldn’t do it again, that the pattern is too much of a PITA (I mean seriously, you shouldn’t have to have a support group and a spread sheet to get through the pattern for a teeny little baby sweater!!) and that the finished knit is really not that cute (sure, it’s cute enough, but there are lots of cute baby sweater patterns out there. Lots.). I wrote that post after I’d finished knitting the sweater but before I’d sewn the sleeves or added buttons or blocked.

meh.

Then, I sewed up the seams, attached the little buttons, and blocked it.

love(1)

I think I’m hooked.  The details are [raveled].

Knitting

Effed Up Baby Surprise Jacket

Update–>Mom and baby are feelin’ fine! My friend delivered her beautiful baby girl this afternoon. Hooray! Now–off to finish the sweater. :-)

On Wednesday last week, I learned that my dear friend would be going into the hospital today to deliver her baby (early) due to some complications. I am worried for her and her baby, but have faith that everything will be all right. She has a wonderful doctor and is in good hands, I’m sure.

In the mean time, what do knitters do when they are worried? They knit. On Friday, I hit the LYS, with the intention of procuring some yarn for one of these. I chose Mission Falls 1824 Wool and brought it home, casting on immediately. I’d had hopes of finishing it up by today, and was ready to knit furiously on it all weekend. The only problem is that I didn’t get the gauge of 7 sts/in that would give me a newborn size. No. And d’ya think I could have been troubled to go down a couple of needle sizes to get the correct gauge according to the pattern? No. I decided to adjust the pattern for my gauge (oh, the hubris!) and attempted to work the pattern with 75% fewer stitches.

I knit and knit and knit, planning the stripes carefully and working the decreases, going back and forth and back and forth late into the night. That was Friday. I woke up Saturday morning and had a good look at my progress. One side was about five stitches shorter than the other. I tried to make it work, counting back and making sure I was decreasing in the right places, but I just couldn’t figure it out. Given my yen to have a baby sweater for my friend by today, I abandoned my attempt at the BSJ in favor of this quick little knit.

And then I ran out of yarn.

No sleeves until I go back to the yarn shop today. *sigh*

Speaking of my trip to the LYS on Friday, I ran into another knit blogger who recognized me from either my blog or ravelry. She introduced herself by the name of her blog (also her Ravelry handle) which is really funny to me. I was so enthused to meet another knit blogger that I thought afterward I might have come off rather too strongly. I guess I was wrong. She describes our meeting and said some really sweet things about me on her blog (hi, Jen!). We hope to get together for some knitting soon. Yay!