09.03.08
My First EZ BSJ
Once my cousin sent me an article on clutter. The author of the article set some guidelines to help one organize and decide what to keep and what not to keep to minimize clutter. While I did agree with some of the suggestions, there was “one” suggestion with which I didn’t agree. That one suggestion was, “If you’re not going to use it within six months, then throw it out. You don’t need it.” Eh, I don’t know if it’s just me, but I have lots of things I want to eventually get to that often takes me longer than six months to get to. BUT, I do eventually get to quite a bit of them, however long it takes (commonly longer than six months). Below is one example of something I had planned on learning about a year and a half ago. I finally got around to getting a hold of the pattern and testing it out using some supplies that I’ve had for longer than six months. I can say, I’m glad I didn’t toss my supplies out just because they were hanging around longer than six months.
Anyway, I can now tick off one of my “to do” items, which was to get a hold of one of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket patterns and give it a whirl. I was first introduced to this pattern when I bought my first sock yarn at The Knitter’s Studio in Los Angeles. I was going to attempt at making hand-knit socks, so this was going to be my first purchase ever of sock yarn. They had a lovely selection which included a brand of yarn called “Koigu.” The sample item knitted next to the yarn was not a sock, but a cute little baby jacket. The sale’s gal must have noticed my interest in the baby jacket, so she explained to me that it was an EZ BSJ (Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket). She explained that it was knit up in “one” piece and folded up to make the jacket. I found that intriguing, not to mention it looked very cute, especially in the Koigu yarn. But I wanted to stay focused and not be an impulse buyer, so I picked out some sock yarn, and headed home. But I never forgot about that EZ BSJ. And now about a year and a half later, I finally got a hold of the pattern in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s book called, The Opinionated Knitter. Since it was hard to visualize how this pattern was going to work, I decided that I would just use up some inexpensive acrylic yarn to test the pattern out first. Here’s what the knitted item looked like just before I cast off on the needles.
Now I know other knitters have said this, but I just have to say it again. Elizabeth Zimmermann was a genius! I mean, who would think of knitting a jacket in one piece like the one above? It’s like origami knitting, ha! Here’s what it looks like when it’s folded according to the pattern.
Here’s the back view.
The only seams on this jacket is along the top of the shoulders and across the top of the arms. As I mentioned previously, I don’t like sewing up seams in knitting, but I had to make sure I did this right because these two seams are right where they can easily be seen. So I made sure to pay attention. Here’s a view of the seam along the dark brown and blue.
I’m not so happy with how dark these pictures turned out. Next time I’ll have to make sure there’s more light, I guess.
For anyone interested in trying this pattern, the EZ Baby Surprise pattern is quite easy to follow. All that’s needed to know is knit stitches, increases and decreases, and some finishing skills to sew up the shoulder seams. I finished this jacket this morning, and later in the afternoon I picked up some buttons for the front. The pattern calls for five buttons. I did make a slight alteration to the pattern around the neck because the edge looked a tad raw to me. The pattern just left the neckline alone. So I single crocheted around the neck area, and then went back the other way with a backward crochet. Here’s a close up of the neckline area and a closer view of one of the buttons I picked out from International Woolens. These were hand painted.
Now I feel confident to try this with nicer yarn. I also want to try the other variations to this pattern such as adding in a collar or a hood and even extending the arms a tad. I’m hoping soon I’ll get to learn modular knitting. I know I’ve been wanting to learn that from more than six months, too. And there ain’t no way I’m planning on throwing out my books just ‘cuz they’ve been sitting around unused for more than six months and likely will sit there for another six months. Sheesh, imagine how many things I’d have to buy twice or more if I had to use it up in six months or throw it out? Just goes to show that we can learn things from people either on what to do, OR what “not” to do. . .
Okay, off to my next project.
Marlakins
