Project BSJ – Done and Done!

Holy crow! A month and 4 days to finish this teeny, tiny, little jacket!!!  I actually finished this up about a week ago, but forcing myself to sit down and do the seaming felt like I was going to get a tooth pulled.  But it’s finally done.  Yay!

So I do have to admit that the concept behind this Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket, is in fact (as many people before me have stated), genius.  You knit, in one piece, this piece of fabric that looks absolutely nothing like anything recognizable.  

You then spend a good 5 minutes attempting to figure out how to fold this thing into a sweater.  When all of a sudden you happen to make the right folds, and taa daa…this tiny, adorable jacket appears before your eyes and you can’t believe you didn’t see it before. 

Then all you have to do is sew up two little shoulder seams (which really should not have been as painful a task as my procrastinating self made it into), and sew on 5 little buttons, and you’re done!  I do still need buttons for it…but I’ve found some handmade, wood buttons that I’ll soon have in the shop that I think will be perfect, so I’m going to wait.

All in all, this little jacket turned out adorable. I love the striped effect of the Noro Kureyon, and even though the Kureyon is not my beloved Silk Garden, it did give a fabric more appropriate to a jacket.  It used up every scrap of the 3 balls, and I mean EVERY scrap!  In the unfolded picture, you can see a few tails of yarn hanging out…well those are all I had left to seam it up with!  I tell ya, that last cast off row was stressful watching that yarn get shorter and shorter and shorter, and you just keep knitting and hope you make it.  And yes, I realize that I own a yarn shop and could’ve just grabbed another ball…but really, is there ANY knitter out there that wouldn’t be savage over having to break into a new ball for only a metre or so of yarn???  No, no there isn’t.

This is a great, little pattern for a quick baby knit (this TOTALLY shouldn’t have taken me over a month!), but be advised…this pattern is unbelievably vague!  It’s barely a pattern by today’s standards.  As well as this turned out in the end, right from the cast on row, I had to refer to a BSJ Wiki.  And found my self there many times over the course of the project.  The Baby Surprise Jacket group on Ravelry was absolutely invaluable!  If it wasn’t for that group, I’d most likely still be on the first row…or the never-to-be-finished UFO would be hidden away, in shame, in my knitting room.  So my only advice to you is…if you want to make the jacket…JOIN THE BSJ GROUP!!!  I’m hoping to get to EZ’s Mitered Mittens very soon (steeks eek!). I wonder if there’s a group for them?  I wonder if I’ll NEED a group for them???  Hopefully not, they are only mittens after all. (of course, I did just say the same thing about this jacket just over a month ago!) 😛

Be back soon with some new projects done over the summer!  I’m finishing up a few toys, supposed to start a sweater for an excellent friend going to Prague in October, I have some baby stuff to knit for another amazing friend, working on a really cool project for someone I’m in a secret swap with, AND I’m learning to crochet for a gigantic, top-secret project that needs to be done by November…Wow, just realizing now as I write this, how many projects that actually is…I’m screwed.  Guess I better get knitting!!!  Bye for now. 😀