Thursday, September 11, 2008

BSJ: Whipping my butt.

Well, not anymore it aint! The BSJ, also known as the Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman, is one of those patterns that tests your mettle as a knitter I reckon. Firstly the pattern as written is pretty crude, and by that I mean it's very sparse. There are many gaps, and there is an assumption by the author that certain things are automatically understood. Without supplementary notes (of which there are many throughout the internet!), you'd have to be a pretty clever, patient knitter to work this pattern. I'm only a quarter of the way through this pattern so far, and I'm using the spreadsheet from this clever knitter. It gives stitch and row counts, and overall provides good supplementary information to what by all means is a very cleverly constructed little jacket. I'm using some hand-dyed yarn from the stash that was bought from Wilabaa, and I *think* dyed by Hawthorn Cottage Craft. The colours are beautifully earthy and rustic, and just as well they are because I'm not enjoying knitting with it at all! I'm not sure why, but I'm finding it horribly tedious knitting on this particular needle/yarn combo. I will perservere because I'm that sort of person, and like a challenge!

6 comments:

Irene said...

I'm stalling on my BSJ also. If it weren't for the spreadsheet I don't think I would have made it! Not too sure I'm a fan of garter stitch, and my yarn choice is pooling horribly. *sigh* soldier on!

Ann said...

I do undertsand how you feel as I felt the same when I was knitting the Pi shawl. Good luck on the BSJ!

sweetp said...

Looks great, I'd like to do that one day

Anonymous said...

it's such a great looking pattern and seems so simple yet clever.

is there a place in oz to buy the pattern?

Sam said...

I'm knitting it from "The Opinionated Knitter", but you can buy the single leaflet from School house press (hard copy only unfortunately). I've seen The Bead and Opal Queen with BSJ leaflets also, she's in Aus, so it might be quicker to get any hard copies from her.

catsmum said...

Love the BSJ but I think that I enjoyed knitting her SBJ [ surplice baby jacket ] more
had to buy the mag off someone on Ebay but it was worth it just for that one pattern