Surprise, Surprise, Baby Surprise
In a crowd of knitters, if you mention Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket, you're likely to be met with one of two reactions. Either they'll have knit it, probably more than once, or they're intimidated by the scant instructions and "trust the pattern" nature of the knitting. I hadn't knit one, although I purchased the pattern several years ago. There's a lot of great patterns for wee ones out there, and I keep getting distracted by other patterns when I needed gifts for new little people.
It seems I am again at a point where many of my friends are expecting children, or have just given birth to a child. While scouting patterns for a baby due earlier this month (he arrived on the 15th, healthy and with a great appetite for living) I decided to take a stripey yarn (schoppelwoll's crazy zauberball in fresh fische) that looked kind of clunky in the ball and turn it into a crazy rainbow bsj. Because of the way it utilizes miters, it's a perfect pattern for yarns with long, gradual color changes. It's true that for most of the knitting, it looks like you're knitting a big, blobby amoeba. But if you trust Elizabeth's guidelines, you take that amoeba and fold it quickly into a wee sweater. Two seams and a few buttons and you're done.
The nature of the knitting forms those perfect square cornered stripes and then also some lovely horizontal stripes across the back:
I finished the sweater with 5 buttons from The Button Emporium in Portland. That place is a wonderland of buttons and ribbons. Almost any kind of button you might imagine wanting (although we did manage to leave without finding the right buttons for a sweater Jodie was finishing though). The rounded square shape and slight divot in the button provided just enough interest in a fairly busy sweater.
The sweater was a hit with the new little one's mama, and a joy for me to knit. I suspect it will not be the last one I knit.
Power Washing
Surprisingly hard work. We're about halfway done, then it dries for 48 hours and then we put on a new coat of stain/sealant. It needs it.
The Eventual Sweater; A Long Haul Process
Just before my birthday I got an itch to spin and knit myself a sweater. I looked at patterns, picked several I like and then started researching fiber sources. I wanted it to be fairly soft, but also to have some sheen and to wear well so I turned to one of my favorite fibers to spin, the fleece of the Blue-Faced Leicester. I contacted Klaus at Crown Mountain Farms who was able to bring 4 pounds of simply gorgeous, fluffy, pin-drafted roving with him to Black Sheep Gathering for me to pick up, saving me on shipping costs.
I split 4 ounces of roving into 1 ounce bundles and did some test dyeing in July after making a trip to the Eugene Textile Center to pick up some Jacquard Acid Dyes. With just a few tests I was able to settle on a color that I'm reasonably sure is one I love (if I change my mind once the yarn is spun, I can always over-dye it). Each 4 ounce roving was dyed once in silver grey and then over-dyed with a mixture of turquoise and kelly green. I've started the spinning, but it's slow going as I'm easily distracted by my knitting. I did first spin a sample skein though. This wee skein is 1/2 ounce of three ply yarn and a dream to spin which is good, since there's a lot of it to spin.
Cribbage; or Finding Joy Under the Stresses
I learned how to play cribbage when I was fairly young. My parents were friends with a couple who had two boys about my age; they would bring the boys over, we'd have dinner and then the grownups would drink beer and play cribbage while the kids watched a movie or played together. The real treat during these cribbage nights was that sometimes we were allowed to sit with the grownups and help count points. For those not familiar with the game, you get points for combining the cards in your hand or crib in different ways. It's a great learning tool for kids--counting, addition, pattern recognition--all wrapped up in the fun of a game.
In college I spent many hours with one young man, forging a friendship initially based on little more than a shared love of the game. The board pictured above was a gift from him to me and it's one of my prized possessions. I've taught my husband how to play now. Tonight, reminding him of the somewhat complex rules I was filled with happy memories. It's easy to let the good things take a backseat to daily stress and frustrations and after a month particularly full of them, I'm working hard to embrace the little joys. And maybe I'll be playing a lot more cribbage than normal.