Zimmermania

Saturday, February 10, 2007

First BSJ Complete!

Well, this was an awesome knit!! I have at least one more to do for an intended recipient, but have no doubt I'll do more just to see how they turn out!

All told, it took me just over 3 days of knitting to complete this, including the minimal seams (YIPPEE!) but I haven't sewn the buttons on yet. It took me a while to find the ones I wanted and since the sun is out for a few minutes, I figured I'd better jump on it and take some pictures!

Here is the completed sweater using Bernat Softee Baby on size 5 addi turbos in His Jeans Ombre coloring:



And a close-up of the buttons:



I chose ducks because I'm also knitting a small duck toy for the baby-boy-to-be and thought it would be fun to stick with a theme.

I can't wait to finish the knitting I've promised so I can start on more EZ patterns! I absolutely loved this one!

Stacee

posted by knitting elephant at 11:05 AM

11 Comments:

  • Great job.They are addictive arn't they.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:01 PM  

  • 3 days!!??!!! that is great! Are you an experieinced knitter? I am a relatively new knitter- hope to try the BSJ soon! any tips, pointers?

    By Blogger kate, at 4:19 PM  

  • I actually didn't like the BSJ until I saw yours the light colors just make it adorable and not so boxy, somehow. And yes, those booties are adorable!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:02 PM  

  • i love how the striping plays with the bi-directional construction.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:30 PM  

  • Thanks to all of you for the compliments!
    To answer the questions, I have been knitting for 3 years, so I'm still very much a beginner and ask for help OFTEN! I don't really have any pointers because it's such a well-written pattern that there's not much (if anything at all) to improve upon!

    The booties are the Stay On Booties from Knitting For Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas. As for the seaming, I used my Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques and got to work. It went very quickly and easily, and I can't wait to do more!

    By Blogger knitting elephant, at 4:58 AM  

  • Definitely newborn at ~16" chest. If my calculations are right, the bsj used just about 250 yards (less than one ball of the softee baby) and the booties about 80 yards. You can easily finish the BSJ using one ball of the yarn I used (~333 yds for ombre version,) even with gauge adjustments. If you were adventurous you could probably make the set with only one ball, but you'd probably be down to the last inches when you were done!

    Good luck!

    By Blogger knitting elephant, at 1:11 PM  

  • Beautiful!

    By Blogger Nonna Rose, at 3:16 AM  

  • another question-how do you know what size to make the BSJ -like how many cast ons for an 18 month old, 2 year old, etc?

    By Blogger kate, at 8:26 AM  

  • From what I understand, the best way to change size is to use heavier weight yarn and larger needles, but follow the pattern exactly as written. For example, baby weight with size 5 needles = roughly newborn, but sport weight and size 6 or 7 would probably get 6-9 mos or bigger. These are just my assumptions, so if I'm way off, I apologize! I believe you can even make a doll sized bsj by using fingering weight and size 0 or 1 needles!!

    Hope this helps a little.

    By Blogger knitting elephant, at 1:16 PM  

  • thanks- I will try!

    By Blogger kate, at 1:36 PM  

  • i made a bsj 28 stitches to 4 inches. this is pretty much newborn to 3 mos old.
    i made another in noro silk garden (aran weight). that fits a well fed baby from 4 mos and up. this has been consumer tested with an actual baby. it is great fun to knit this pattern. so ingenious.

    By Blogger knititch, at 5:34 PM  

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