Baby Surprise Jacket

Baby Surprise Jacket
Originally uploaded by knithound brooklyn

I blogged about this project about a week ago and since then I've finished all the knitting and bought the buttons. I still need to seam up the top. The buttons came from M&J Trimming, that button mecca in the Garment District.

I did the entire project in a little over a week. This is a process knit not a project knit. By that I mean, I did this simply to learn the process and I have no recipient in mind.
It led me to think about why I knit the things I do. In almost all the projects, I learn a new technique or stitch. There is some challenge that I want to take on with every project. There are process knitters and there are project knitters.
I would say I am a little of both, and I'm happy with that. It's a good balance overall.

You see, it's all knit in one piece. As you're going along, you're thinking "what the heck?"

But just as her pattern urges, "Press on". I am really tuned into the notion of "press on" these days. By breaking down a task, whatever it is - knitting, woodwork refinishing, selling telecomms, getting the house ready to sell, navigating my future life, whatever it is, just break it down into steps and focus on the step itself. Stay focused, and do your best before moving to the next step.

This is helping me be fearless. Because while I am focused on the task at hand, I become more comfortable with it and as I realize there's nothing to fear.

That blob turns into a sweater by simply folding the sides in. The only seam runs across the top! Here's the back of the sweater.

The yarn is diVe Zenith. I bought a ton of this stuff on sale at Webs. I have 11 different bright colors, 3 or 4 balls of each. The idea was to have a simple superwash worsted on hand for baby gifts. This is the first use of the diVe. It's okay, good stitch definition, sometimes a bit splitty but nothing I can't deal with.

This is a close-up of the garter stitch across the back. The stripes were added at random when I felt like it. You can also see the increases that are evenly spaced across the back, part of the pattern. When I do this sweater again, and I WILL do it again, I will use a different increase method. For this one, I did M1. I think it would be better to do a backward cast on.

What an amazing pattern. Now I GET it. What all the fuss is when it comes to Elizabeth Zimmerman. I'd been a bit intimidated by her knitting because her patterns are a bit open ended. I have a lot of respect for EZ, having finished this little project. And I can't wait to do another EZ project!