Baby Surprise Jacket

Among the numerous and frequent moments of epiphany, gratitude and sheer awe inspired in each knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann, none, I believe, is as poignant as the one experienced when you fold together your first BSJ.

Pattern: (the infamous) Baby Surprise Jacket
Author: Elizabeth Zimmermann
Source: The Opinionated Knitter, Knitting Workshop
Gauge: 5 sts per inch
Materials: Hello Yarn Handspun 2-Ply
Colors: "Trodden" and "Hunkered"
Amount: 5.3 ounces/306 yds
Buttons: 5 Iridescent Shell buttons from M&J Trimming in midtown Manhattan; Five

Finished Measurements: 18.5" Chest (Buttoned), 19" from cuff to cuff, 11.5" Height

Started: 7 June 2007
Finished: 9 June 2007
(Buttons Added 17 June 2007)

I did this one pretty much exactly by the book - no modifications. I familiarized myself as best I could with just exactly what is going on with this pattern, and while I felt I was able to grasp the concept well enough - you really don't get it until you do it. And do it again. This one is addictive!


Aside from the inspired pattern, joining it with such a special yarn really made this experience priceless. I knit this on the train ride up to Rhinebeck a few weekends ago. With the Hudson gliding by outside my window, I had one of those elevated knitting moments where everything comes together a little too well.


The buttons were a perfect match - they're shell buttons that reflect all the blues and purples of Adrian's handspun. I originally planned on something a little more earthy, but when I saw these I changed my mind. I default to wood buttons too often anyway.


I'm stating the obvious, but this one gets a big, fat stamp of approval from me. I've already started scheming future versions from some of my more exciting stash bits.

We're headed out to the Oregon Coast to camp for the next few days (!!!) so I'll be away from e-mail. Despite being on vacation, I did recognize that this morning is Monday, which is usually not fun at all - I hope this little BSJ Offering rounds out the edges of the week jolting you back into reality. Happy Knitting!

February Baby Sweater

Coming to you live from Portland with the first of two miniature EZ garments. There has been a whole lotta crazy surrounding this project - I had to dig into my archives to review its evolution from skein to sweater. Who knew something so tiny could brew for so long?

Pattern: February Baby Sweater, aka Baby Sweater on 2 Needles
Source: Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
Yarn: Sundara Yarn Worsted Merino Semi-Solid
Color: Pine over Yellow
Amount: 137g/240 yards worsted weight
Needles: US 8/5mm Addi Turbos
Buttons: marbled plastic, 5 purchased from M&J Trimming in midtown

I started the first version of this sweater last Fall but ran out of yarn sometime in October. Sundara gave me a generous fill-up in December, and I chose to restart the project on bigger needles (I was using US 6's) in the new, slightly different dye lot. (There was a little snafu on the skein winder at this point) By February, I had two of these little things on my needles (fitting month for this, no?) and was on my way. I ended up finishing the knitting in March, showing you the almost finished item in May and finally got around to buying buttons and sewing them on last week. How's that for long winded?


Mods: I modified the 'virtually seamless' pattern into a completely seamless pattern using circular needles (rather than the suggested straights) thusly: Once you've reached the divide for the armholes, work the sleeves first from the top down, casting on underarm stitches and joining sleeves into the round (EZ has you work them flat). After sleeve knitting, begin again working the body from where you left it, picking up underarm stitches from the sleeve tubes when you get to them (rather than casting on underarm stitches on the body). No seams in the end (not even the tiny little underarm openings)! Other than that, everything was by the book.

Add this one to the ever-growing ranks of this wonderful pattern. I never tire seeing this little number popping up all over our knitting blog landscape.


Another EZ sweater is comin' atcha in a couple of days. For now, it's back to coffee and the dog on this beautiful summery day in PDX.

Handknit Amoeba

It's time for a little knit-origami magic. Stay tuned for EZ Baby Sweater Week here at Brooklyn Tweed.

Handspun Heaven

I've been sitting on some beautiful yarn for far too long, and it's time to share with you. Aside from spurning each other on towards Tomten glory, Adrian and I have been talking handspinning for the last few weeks. Since I've never knit with handspun before, can you think of a better way to start than with my very own stash of HelloYarn? Check out this eye candy:


4.5 oz/240 yds 'Pluot' 100% Corriedale Wool

1.9 oz/116 yds 'Hunkered' 100% South African Fine Wool

3.4 oz/190 yds 'Trodden' 100% Corriedale Wool
I feel absolutely gluttonous over here. I'm not used to such luxury! In considering all the possibilities, there is really only one project that deserves to be knit with these skeins. Wound and ready for ... yep you guessed it, more garter stitch. Will it ever stop?


I am happy to report that I am officially on vacation (thank the heavens!) and will be spending the next 10 days in Portland, Oregon, one of my very favorite places in the world. There will be Oregon Coast knitting and camping and a whole host of much needed relaxation. Don't you worry though, I've stored up plenty of blog fodder to power through. There is a wireless connection waiting for me there. (My dependency on the Internet is nothing short of shameful, but I'll own up to it).

Oh! And I also got one of these...


Hey. What did you expect in the face of all this beautiful handspun?

Tomten Update: Sleeve Cap Acrobatics

I have so many things that I could babble about today, but I promised a proper Tomten Update and I plan to keep my word.

At present, I estimate that I have about 60% of the knitting done. Although hoods, I assume, eat up more wool than most of us expect, so my calculations are subject to interpretation. The body is knit in its entirety as well as 2 sleeve caps, only one of which will make it to the final version of the sweater.

In conceiving an adaptation of the original Tomten, there were a few areas of the pattern that I knew would need some serious revision to fit my personal taste. The most obvious and problematic for me being the sleeve construction. The current pattern has a schematic that resembles a capital "T", utilizing a sort of very-deep modified drop shoulder. [Here's a good example I found searching flickr.] Now, not forgetting that this pattern is best suited (not to mention intended) for children, this construction is fine and in fact a truly "modular" one, which is by all means part of the Tomten's charm. For me, it won't work though and I welcomed the challenge of figuring something else out while keeping the main design principles intact.

I schemed up a few ideas for tackling this problem, one of them involved a gusset, others involved short rows and still others a combination of these and other tricks. In the end, I decided to try the most interesting thing I could come up with - working a set-in sleeve from the top down in the (somewhat odd) space provided. I wasn't sure if it would work, mostly because of all that garter stitch, which has a completely different row-to-stitch-gauge ratio than stockinette. And I've only ever seen this technique successfully executed in stockinette.


Pictured above is the armhole just before the set-in sleeve shaping begins (aka boatloads of shortrows). I've blogged this trick before - it's one of the genius techniques found in Barbara Walker's book of all things top-down - and an addictive little trick. (Hark, heel-turners of the world, this one is right up your alley.) Remember, it saved me from pattern issues I ran into with Jarrett.

The difference with this situation is, as I mentioned before, an atypical gauge ratio. Since the 'turning' of the sleeve fuses together a horizontal gauge measurement with a vertical gauge measurement within one cylindrical tube, garter stitch threw my numbers off. Following the top-down method as-is, I would have ended up with the upper portion of the sleeve at almost 50% of the body. WAY too many stitches. (In this case, that meant an upper arm circumference of about 21"!) The standard sleeve usually maxes out at the upper arm around 35-40%.


In an nutshell, I devised a rate of increasing to be worked throughout the short row shaping of the sleeve cap that more or less lands me at the target 35-40% sleeve number at the conclusion of the shaping. I'm sure this is not nearly as complicated as I've made it sound. Either way, the second picture is the successful cap and the beginning of the regular sleeve knitting (from the top-down, naturally).

Now I just have to replicate this on the opposite side (can I decipher my notes?), finish the sleeves and then it's on to the hood. The hood is really what's gonna power me through sleeve monotony. Lord knows I've had some other fiber related distractions tempting me.

Garter stitch resumes with an almost untarnished voracity. Stay tuned for more Adult Tomten coverage.

You're My Iro

This one is sort of a drop-in-the-bucket as far as projects are concerned, but so beautiful in it's simplicity that I figured it deserved a little slice of blog space. I don't get a chance to work with yarn as beautiful ($$$) as Iro everyday, so this was an absolute treat and went all too quickly.

Pattern: Generic Garter Stitch Scarf (17 sts in width)
Materials: Noro 'Iro' in shade #47
Amount: 2 full hanks; 200 g/262 yds
Needles: US 11/8mm

Start and End Date: 12 April 2007 (I couldn't stop)

Let me tell you this was one sweet fiber to work with - this is one occasion where the speed of knitting was actually unpleasant. In the end I definitely wished I had more to knit with! This is the second installment of that Noro binge I went on back in March. Don't worry though, this is it for Noro Scarves - the 'Tweed isn't scheduled for a self-striping-yarn takeover. This year. In truth, with all the garter stitch delight going on backstage, everything else is residing in temporary obscurity.


I have the day off tomorrow, so this is my 'Friday' post. I tend to prefer something simple and easy on the eyes to wrap up the week, when I'm so fried even blog reading can be a chore. We're getting out of the city and spending the weekend upstate (in Rhinebeck of all places), so I hope to have a lot to show you next week, including a proper Adult-Tomten update (the love affair continues). My partner-in-crime is on vacation so I'm trying not to go overkill on the Tomten. It's called a knit-along after all, even if it is just the two of us. (Hope you're enjoying Ireland)

I have something pretty great (!!!) keeping me busy though... more on that later.
Be sure to drink your morning coffee and enjoy your weekend knitting.