Hello there

Hi folks.

So glad to have found this group. I love Zimmerman's books, and use them as inspiration for so much of my knitting. Well, just as inspiration for knitting at all. Here's a baby sweater I knitted following her instructions. I knit the body front and back flat, so I could do the intarsia puppy. But the rest is all in the round. Very fun project.

Looking forward to playing with you all.

Julie

Seamless Raglan Progress

I've been knitting away, and it's beginning to look like a sweater--finally! (See original post here.)

I still have my doubts about how it will turn out. I'm still not sure the yarn will hold out, so I may have to make a last-minute Internet purchase to complete the project. Also, I'm not at all sure that I can graft these underarms neatly and make them look like anything that resembles decent:



I must have stretched things a lot when I joined the body and sleeves, because I've got some wonky, huge stitches on the ends of these underarm sections. I'm hoping that blocking will work miracles on the armpits (and make the decrease stitches look more even)!

We shall see . . .

--Kelley

BSJ Sizing

I'm thinking of making my first BSJ for my 2 YO son. He wears 3T clothes right now (monkey arms). Has anyone else made the BSJ around this size? I'm thinking of using a worsted weight yarn, but I'm not sure what gauge I should be aiming for.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

BSJ News Flash

If you haven't picked it up yet, make sure you get yourself a copy of Vogue Knitting's Spring/Summer edition. Meg shares a variation of the Baby Surprise Jacket that she found in one of Elizabeth's notebooks. It's shaped a lot like the heartbreakingly cute baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting, but with that crazy BSJ flair. I can't wait to try it, so the magazine and some cotton tweed are going on Spring Break with me. Hope to show you when I get back!

EPS, or YPS

There have been a lot of questions here lately about what percentages to use for sleeves in the EPS system. I really like some of the EZ sweater constructions, and I have made a few of the sweaters (one of them is blocking right now- I'll post a picture sometime soon), but I use my own measurements (or percentages). I would like to suggest that no two people are exactly the same size, and everyone prefers a different fit in their sweaters. Therefore, to make a sweater that fits YOU perfectly, use your percentage system, or YPS. I suggest using a sweater that, in your opinion, fits YOU perfectly to make three measurements. The body, the cuff, and the upper arm. We'll call your body measurement B, your cuff measurement C, and your upper arm measurement U. Measure carefully, and write down your three measurements:

B__________


C__________


U__________

Now pull out your calculator, and make these two calculations:

C/B * 100 = the percentage of stitches that you should have at the cuff of your sweater

U/B * 100 = the percentage of stitches that you should have at the upper arm of your sweater.

Example (numbers are totally made up):

Your sweater's cuffs are 9 inches around (C=9)
Your sweater's upper arm is 20 inches around (U=20)
Your sweater's body is 36 inches around (B=36)

C/B *100 = 9/36 * 100 = 25%
U/B *100 = 20/36 *100 = 55.6%

Use these percentages in EZ's sweater patterns to get a sweater that fits the way you want it to fit.

EZ Knits

I finally got some pictures of my Tomten Jacket, Hybrid and Seamless Fair Isle Yoke!

You can see more pictures by visiting my blog

wwwDOTknitaddictionsDOTcom/blog

Another February Baby Sweater

February Baby Sweater
from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, color #829, one ball plus a smidge of another, approximately 300 yards or fewer altogether.
Needles: Addi Turbo US7/4.5mm
New technique: The Russian Join!

I really wanted to knit one of these for my own little peanut, but as she's quickly growing out of the little sizes and into bigger and bigger ones, and since Elizabeth Zimmerman doesn't include schematics with her pithy instructions, I decided to knit one for a tiny baby first. I think this one knit up at about a size 6 months. Now I know approximately how to size the sweater up if I were to knit it at this gauge again.

One modification I might like to try is a stockinette stitch, raglan increase yoke, a la Linda. Garter stitch has never been my thing, aesthetically, and I really like the cleaner look of the stockinette stitch yoke she made.

I really wasn't so sure that the Cascade 220 Superwash was the right yarn for the project. It didn't feel very soft and I didn't want to gift something that felt acrylic-y. So when the knitting was all done, I tossed this little lacy number into the washing machine with a load of towels. If the color bled, I'd rather it happened on my navy blue towels than on a load of Julia's pretty baby girl things. In the end, the sweater came out very, very soft and has a slight halo. I've completely changed my attitude toward 220 Superwash. I want to use it again, soon. As for colorfastness, there was one light blue towel in the load and it didn't seem to change color at all.

I also want to say mille grazie to Kristen and Amanda for answering questions about adding the underarm stitches.

For Baby Julia, born February 2007

Cross posted to my blog.

Help with Percentage System?

Hi All -

I am about to embark on a top down raglan sleeve sweater for myself. I was wondering if anyone could tell me which book has the more updated EZ percentage system. I made a sweater for my husband using the older percentages and it ended up with the tighter sleeves and I don't want that to happen again!

Thanks for your help everyone!

Progress: slowly but surely

I have sewn the shoulders on my first ever sweater and am ready for the sleeves and neck!! I never would have done this if not for learning about EZ from Franklin Habit's essay on CastOn. EZ has changed my life in a very knitterish way. Sizing was based on EZ's methods and the sweater is adapted from the Weasley sweater on Sweaterscapes (I mentioned that before I know). I am so excited to have something thats looking more and more like an actual garment. Best of all? Its actually going to fit my son, who is almost 10 (ok..too big but it is going to be worn even longer that way!!;oP). Also, you all keep me inspired to do even more projects after this..my copy of Knitting Around is in the mail I hear. I check the mail box every day, nearly prancing with impatience!! LOL

A Question about Yardage

Hello everyone! I have been signed up for this KAL since it began but am only just getting around to knitting something for it. I've started my very first Baby Surprise Jacket, for the offspring of my cousin and his wife (due in May, gender unknown). I'm using JoAnn Fabrics' Sensations Tesoro (100% wool) in a lovely seafoam green shade that, to my mind, is pretty gender neutral. Here's how far I've gotten (and I must add that the color has been completely washed out by my camera):


As you can see, I'm quickly approaching the end of my first skein of yarn, with three remaining. My question for all you experienced BSJ knitters is how much yarn I will need. I am knitting at a gauge of 6 stitches to the inch on US 5 (3.75 mm) needles and have completed nine decreases so far. Each skein of this yarn is 87 yards/80 meters. I have some other yarn on hand that would work well for stripes, if needed. Do those of you who have knit a BSJ have an idea of your yardage for the sweaters you've completed?

Your help is much appreciated!

Fair Isle Finished

I finished my first fair isle sweater and I'm very pleased with it.



I started knitting it at my lunch hour and then worked on it at home so it didn't take very long to knit. I loved seeing how the colour patterning would look outside of my head and it was a great way to use of half skeins from my stash. Since this sweater was in a larger size I did the four decreases noted in the Opinionated Knitter.



I think I may not have carried the yarn as loosely as I should when I began the fair isle but overall I'm happy with this sweater and will definitely knit another one or two.

I am finished the seamless raglan based on Zimmermann's seamless raglan construction- Knitting Without Tears. I was proud on my knitting goods when we are into a walk. My computer is damaged and I am very sad! Now I came to my hubby`s work to see what is new? fist reaction was not very nice, he dont like to dress himself
eyes are still tearfull and
at last good mood :


gocce

3rd BSJ

Here is the final BSJ for the month. I made three of them for neices that were born on March 21 and April 10 (tentatively!). The specs are on my blog. Here are the pics.

3rd BSJ

This will hopefully be the last BSJ for the next two months before I start another one. There are really babies falling from the sky. I just completed the third BSJ in the month for neices that were born on March 21 and one that will be born on April 10th (tentatively!). Here are pics of the third one and all three together.

OTN-Fair Isle Vest

OTN-FairIsleVest.jpg
Originally uploaded by K2Karen.

In process... great fun to knit

hybrid in action

we had a lovely first day of spring here in copenhagen and i gave the hybrid to the person it is intended for. it is certainly a good recipe for a sweater no matter if it is for a short and chubby man or as in these pictures for a tall and lanky one. he is very happy with his sweater which makes me very happy.

EZ's seamless sweater finishing

I don't know about you, guys, but EZ's percentage system just doesn't work for me. As I understand, the neck shouldn't stand up. I did everything as she wrote: decreased to 40% of total body stitches (108 sts)(=44 sts), done back-of -neck shaping and ribbing for 1". Keep in mind that the yoke is even SHORTER than it should be (should be 1/4 of the circumference of the body, which is 36"=9" and my yoke is 8").It doesn't look good.


For this type of sweater the collar should LIE on the neck, not stand up. I want to rip it back to end of the yoke and do plain St st neck so the collar would curl outward from the body, without back-of-neck shaping. Any suggestions, comments?

I am almost done with my Aran poncho...need to do a couple more rows of a crocheted edge. Thought I might do a picot edge, but looking at the pic here it might look too fussy. And I am thinking I will not block this...I like the way the long edge flows and the sheer weight of this thing will block it for me!

I cannot find the pattern I used...I had everything committed to memory. It was not an EZ pattern, but I did not like the way the top down percentages were figured so went to my EZ books and made it work better! EZ to the rescue!





This pic shows the color better. It has more green than the pic above shows. You can also see the cabling section better...sort of.












Miss Maggie generously broke her frown to give me a smile while modeling for me. The poncho is for me but I do NOT put pics of me fluffy self on the net willingly, so here you see that it is a BIG poncho. Actually fits me very nicely.





Happy knitting to all!

Ann
Taoknitter

a brown hybrid

i have knitted a hybrid for my very tall nephew. it is not the first sweater i have ever knit for him but this i think will fit him perfectly. not that the other sweaters haven't. it took me a little less than a week to knit it. the wool is rowan yorkshire tweed which i have a penchant for. it is a very rich coffee brown and the inside of the hem a lovely tweedy limegreen. it is pretty hard to take a picture that makes much sense without anybody wearing it as it just looks like a brown doormat or something but i will take more pictures of him wearing it on sunday where i will give it to him as a baptism gift. he is going to be the godfather of a little girl who will be baptized in a white tomten and hence has to get baptized himself first.

the box on the pictures is a lovely box to store my addi turbos in.

My February Sweater Modifications

I've been asked to share the modifications that I made to EZ's February Sweater..I've tried to be very careful regarding copyright issues, so have written it in such a way, that it is an add-on to Elizabeth's pithy directions, and won't make any sense without the original...(hope this is ok..if not, I'm happy to delete the post :-))
**Work as the original until you reach the first row of increases. Instead of increasing, decide where your shoulders should be (pin the neckline closed as if it's buttoned up, and the folds at the edges will be about right for the shoulders). I made the top of each sleeve, 2 stitches wide, so placed a stitch marker either side of that. Working from here in stocking stitch, increase one stitch either side of the 4 markers, on every knit row (keeping front edges in garter stitch). Work until there is roughly the same amount of stitches as the last increase row in the pithy directions ( mine had 6 stitches more). You are now at the part in the directions, where you divide for the sleeves and body...from here, you start using the gull pattern instead of stocking stitch. I increased the sleeve and underarm by casting on enough stitches for one gull pattern repeat. The rest of the pattern is as the pithy :-)**

This really is the easiest ever modification :-D ...hope the way I've written it makes sense!

Kelley, thanks for the comment :-) The yarn I used for my February sweater was Red Heart Soft Baby. The ball band says that it's fingering weight, but I'm not too familiar with US terminology...if I was talking in Aus/UK terms, I would call it a baby 4ply. I used 4mm needles, but could possibly have gone down a size. There are a few more stitches on the yellow sweater (than in he modified directions), as I added more for the front bands. The chest measurement was about 20 inches, but the ones made with the written mods, should be slightly smaller.
Hope this helps :-)
Linda

Hi Fellow EZ Knitters

One of the first BSJs that I ever knitted--but certainly not the last! This is one of my favorite sweaters to knit for any size child. I love how adding length to the sleeves, adding a collar--details that can make such a big difference!

I have one on size 3 needles now in sport wt yarn that will probably be a 3 to 6 mos size. Solid pink and very girly!

Anami

BSJ, longies

Here's a photo of my Boy, head to toe in wool. Kinda reminds me of that greeting card showing the little chub in a knitted outfit with the caption 'Life would be so much nicer if only Mummy didn't knit.'

The longies were my first EZ thing I ever knit, and have been worn, and worn, and worn! They are of Cascade Eco that I hand dyed. So faded now! I knit them when Levi was just a tiny baby, so they are about a year and a half old. The BSJ is starting to get a bit small, but is so wonderfully warm and cute and gets so many compliments, I hate to pack it away. The hat is the Gnomey pattern, courtesy of www.helloyarn.com

Spring has finally sprung, it's wet and 50 degrees, and it's been a great day for playing outside in the woolies!

Help with baby leggings pattern

I Knitter's Almanac Baby leggings have this:
cast on 84 sts
join and work in k2, p2 ribbing for 3 rounds
next round: k2. YO, p2
Rib for 10 more rounds

I stuck wo rinning after first 4 rounds. What to do with this YO'vers? Knit them or purl them? This would disrupt the ribbing
What to do?

Bogged Down

I am suffereing from some major bog woes. I was so excited after my last post seeking help from others knitting the bog jacket, as I got an answer to my question from Meg herself! I ripped back the sleeves I had already been working on and started again from the point where you cast on the extra length for the sleeves. Then I worked happily along, completing the whole left side of the jacket. I tried it on and this sucker is HUGE!!!!

After grafting the left side sleeve to the body and so on, I tried it on (as best I could on one side) and the thing is gigantic! I think the math is just not working out for me as I'm on the chubby side and so I need a jacket that is wider than it is long. I had already adjusted the lenght as I wanted something that hit at the hip as opposed to being long --i.e. over the tush. But when it came to working the upper part of the jacket--the sleeves/yoke, that's where the math failed me.

Or maybe it wasn't the math, maybe it was just me. I was going by the picture in the Knitting Around book that shows Liesl sporting a slim fitting bog, and by this post http://zimmermaniacs.blogspot.com/2006/11/belated-bog.html
which inspired me to make the bog in the first place. So I was expecting the end result to be a fitted jacket as opposed to the Kimono I've ended up with.

So it's back to the drawing board for me. I think I'll just have to tweak the math a bit (maybe a lot) to get it to fit the way I want. But that's still in keeping with Elizabeth's style, right? Find a pattern you like and make the necessary changes to make it yours? I'll keep you posted.

seamless raglan

pattern: based on Zimmermann's seamless raglan construction, including the neck shaping on page 74 of Knitting Without Tears. instead of the EPS, upper arms were calculated to measure since i wanted negative ease around the bust but postive ease around the upper arms. body knitted from the bottom up; sleeves top down from provisional cast-ons at the yoke. the sweater was knitted in the round then steeked open as Zimmermann favors, and as i do now. sleeve shaping was trial-and-error.

yarn: four skeins (100 grams) of Araucania Nature Wool in color #03 (100% wool).

Modified February Sweater

I made this baby jacket based on Elizabeth's February Sweater from her Knitter's Almanac. I have started to knit this sweater a few times before, but have always been unhappy with the way my garter stitch yoke looks...the increases look scruffy and holey!...the photo below shows one of my attempts :-(
...not wanting to give up on it (especially after seeing how awesome everybody else's looked), I decided to change the part of the pattern that wasn't working for me. I figured that I could still make pretty much the same jacket, with a different yoke. I lined up my increases in a row at the 4 seams (in other words, made it a raglan) and continued on with the gull pattern for the rest. It is still made top down and 'practically seamless on 2 needles' as per Elizabeth's instructions :-) I did the raglan yoke in stocking stitch, as I thought it would look neater, but I'm going to try doing the same in garter stitch.
Thanks, thanks, thanks! to EZ, for helping to give us knitters the confidence to explore different ideas, when something isn't working the way we want it to :-D Linda

a Tomten tale

Finally, I have a current FO to share with you all after lurking on this great collective blog for months. Here is a Tomten jacket I have just finished for the next "afghans For Afghans" drive. This is my second Tomten and just as much fun to knit as the first one. I used 2 1/2 skeins of Cascade 220 in a heathered green and a few yards of Plymouth Galway for the stripes. I made a few modifications to the modular construction. When I reached the armholes, I bound off 4 fewer stitches for each sleeve, adding 2 stitches to each front and 4 stitches to the back. I also ended the body a couple of ridges earlier than what the pattern calls for, resulting in slightly less wide sleeves.

With the help of a quick refresher from the wonderful Knitting Glossary DVD, I finished with applied i-cord, incorporating buttonholes as I went. I think this should fit a two-year old, although I haven't been spending much time with two-year-olds recently! I just might try knitting my next Tomten in a dk yarn to end up with more of a baby size. I posted a few more details on my blog, along with photos of older EZ knits in the albums.

a Tomten tale

Finally, I have a current FO to share with you all after lurking on this great collective blog for months. Here is a Tomten jacket I have just finished for the next "afghans For Afghans" drive. This is my second Tomten and just as much fun to knit as the first one. I used 2 1/2 skeins of Cascade 220 in a heathered green and a few yards of Plymouth Galway for the stripes. I made a few modifications to the modular construction. When I reached the armholes, I bound off 4 fewer stitches for each sleeve, adding 2 stitches to each front and 4 stitches to the back. I also ended the body a couple of ridges earlier than what the pattern calls for, resulting in slightly less wide sleeves.

With the help of a quick refresher from the wonderful Knitting Glossary DVD, I finished with applied i-cord, incorporating buttonholes as I went. I think this should fit a two-year old, although I haven't been spending much time with two-year-olds recently! I just might try knitting my next Tomten in a dk yarn to end up with more of a baby size. I posted a few more details on my blog, along with photos of older EZ knits in the albums.

Some Bog Jacket Questions

After seeing the gorgeous Bog Jackets here and in the book, I've decided that I cannot live without one!!

I've decided which yarn I'll be using, and I'm pretty certain I know the colors I would like, but before I jump in I have a few questions I'm hoping can be answered here.

1) How best to estimate yardage needed?
2) How do I measure the 'wingspan' in order to calculate the right number of stitches to cast on for additional sleeve length? (I have broader than average shoulders AND my arms are long, so I need to be certain on this one!!)
3) What is the best way to determine where to start the waist shaping rows? I'm hoping to end up with a sweater-length Bog which tapers at my waist, but am not sure exactly where to go about the shaping. Does it usually end up about halfway between cast on and armhole?

I think those are all my questions for now. No doubt there will be more later! I have some time to get all my ducks in a row for this project while I finish the Tomten I couldn't NOT make for my youngest. :-) I'm actually making some great progress on it, so I might have an FO pic later this week. Don't hold your breath, though!! ;-)

Thanks in advance!

Stacee

Because you can't knit too many Baby Surprises

I can post a picture of my latest Zimmermann creation now - it's in Brooklyn and ready to welcome gleek's little girl, who will arrive tonight or tomorrow morning, with any luck! Yes, that's the Fishtrap in the background, for scale. Babies are so absurdly tiny, and yet I'm sure they don't feel that way on the way out. Please keep Steph in your thoughts and wish her smooth delivery and a healthy daughter!

The yarn for this one is Karabella Vintage Cotton, worked on US #3's. It's very wee. I suspect I'll have to make a second one for when Baby Gleek gets to be more than a month or two old.

toddler cable raglan

The color is more like the second picture, but you can see the cables better in the first one. :) It's not blocked yet but I couldn't wait!
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Chocolate Souffle, 3 skeins
Needles: size 5 for ribbing, size 7 for body
Cables: 8 st. left and right cables for the sleeves, plaited cable rib from Grandma's 1972 Mon Tricot 900 Stitches and Patterns book, modified to knit in the round
Ribbing: farrow rib modified to knit in the round from the same book
Comments: fits great! more stuff about the adventure on my blog