Pumpkin Surprise

This ended up being a bigger project than I first imagined! Actually I think the problem was that I thought I was "almost done" a half dozen times and a full week's worth of knitting before I really was. This was definitely a learning experience.
The pattern is the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. It has a really unique ingenious construction and as soon as I heard about this misshapen dishtowel that folds to make a jacket I had to try it out. Really, here it is when I "finished" knitting it and laid it flat. Crazy looking right?


So at this point I had completed all the pattern rows and thought I was almost done. Nope. I needed to bind off. Many bind off methods are quick but I wanted to try an I-cord bind off. Of course I didn't know how to do that but YouTube is a modern knitter's friend and it didn't look too hard. I got about a 1/3 of the way through the slow process when I discovered that while I'm a loose knitter in general I'm a very tight I-corder! So I had to rip it out and redo. S-l-o-w. I do think it was definitely worthwhile though. I used the aqua for the I-cord and I love the look. It also gives a nice firm edge to the jacket which might have become too stretchy and droopy without it. Oh and during this I near had a heart attack thinking I was going to run out of the aqua yarn a foot short. It was close. (OK, the picture above has the I-cord step done too)

Almost done? Not quite. I needed to seam up the shoulders. Not hard but again, not fast.
Next? Buttons. I didn't want to make a trip just for buttons (as I knew this would lead to buying too much fabric I don't currently need) so I dug through my supplies instead. I happened to have a 1/2" fabric button kit so I searched through my fabric stash and then my scraps. I was just hoping for a decent match to the aqua but I hit the JACKPOT. I had teeny tiny scraps of a Park Slope print that not only was the exact blue but also had the exact orange AND a cute bird print that was the perfect size for the button too. Really, if I designed it it wouldn't have come out any better.


Whew. Finished? Hardly! Apparently the Baby Surprise Jacket proportions really only work for a newborn. Since this was for a tall one-year old I needed to make the sleeves longer. I ended up adding about 4" to each sleeve. And please remind me next time I'm working an unfamiliar pattern to not add crazy stripes. I originally had the sleeve ending with the wide aqua band but since I was lengthening them I had to continue the stripe pattern - one ridge of orange, two of green then back to orange.


But now? DONE! And maybe Ben will wear it for a few weeks before he outgrows it. ;)
Raveled here